Foreign Skies
by Tommy smithy
Summary: Yelsen Kozlov gets the break of his life when the RAF sends him to Fort Galileo to train with the best. but on his first mission an accident sends him into equestria and the earth itself into the planet's orbit.  I suck at summaries
1. Chapter 1

Pre-story warning; this chapter alone is about 7,000 words. It's a long read to say the least, and I don't know if the next chapters will be as big as this. If they are then this won't be updated very often. enjoy

Chapter 1

Nestled in the high Alps was Fort Galileo. Passionately nicknamed "The Tops" by the troops stationed there, It holds the record for the highest runway in the world. Due to it's extreme elevation, it is mostly used to train Swiss Special forces and as a proving ground for experimental high-altitude jets. It was high noon when the newest batch of pilots had arrived in a UN Chinook. The Helicopter glided to a halt, it's doors swung open and thirty of the best and most experienced pilots in Europe began to exit with their gear. They were the best of the best, except for one. His name was Yelsen Kozlov, he had moved to Britain from his small town in Poland. He enlisted in the RAF and showed exemplary flight skills all throughout his training. His friends would joke around calling him "bird brain" for his quick mastery of almost every plane he set foot in. He was about to be put on the list to be shipped to Israel as an instructor when his commander had swapped him to be garrisoned here until "further notice". When he asked his commander why he had done this, he would simply say "it's were you'll shine the most." Yelsen couldn't believe it. he was the best pilot at his base, but these were the best in the world. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be here, at the same time he felt like an ant sitting in the shadow of these great men. A bead of sweat rolled past his brow. The men stood at attention in front of their new CO. He spoke loudly and clearly, "Alright now listen up! You've been chosen based on your performance in tests, and for some of you, in combat. Some of you have received medals, some of you have been called 'the best'. well here at The Tops, you're just another pilot. Everybody here is the best and I expect the best out of all of you, not just in your flying, but in behavior as well. I will not tolerate bragging, insults, or prejudice. You'd all be surprised how many

primadonnas get kicked out of here every week because they're 'too good to get kicked out'. Now that that's been cleared up, I want everybody to know their wingman. Here, your wingman will accompany you on all of your flight missions."

The Colonel proceeded to call out the pairings one by one. Yelsen held his breath, he was afraid that he might be a burden on his wingman.

"Eric Thompson, you will be with Yelsen Kozlov."

Yelsen was approached by a tall british man, Eric jutted out his hand for a handshake. Yelsen looked at it for a second before shaking it.

"Nice to meet you Yelsen." Eric spoke in a friendly, british accent.

"a pleasure." Yelsen had a mild Russian accent, his name was Russian but his family was mostly German.

"what's your story?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"where do you come from? If you're going to be my wingman I might as well know who's covering me."

"oh, I grew up in Poland and moved to England. I joined the RAF and now I'm here, there isn't much to say."

"do you miss your family there?"

"of course, I send them the occasional check and package full of food. They really enjoy these Hershey bars, I always get letters with notes at the bottom saying 'more Hersheys!'"

Eric chuckled, "can't they buy them at the store?"

"they live on a farm in a very small town, there aren't many stores."

"I see, I see. I look forward to getting to know you better."

"thank you."

"for what?"

"for the compliment."

Eric shrugged, he wondered if Yelsen was cut out for being the best in the world. He seemed to be incredibly humble, only time could tell if he would be able to acknowledge his talents.

In a far away place on a distant planet lay a town. It was the town of Ponyville and it sat snugly in Equestria. A young mare named Twilight Sparkle and her friends had gotten back from a night at the Gala. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe it, she had gotten so close to impressing the Wonderbolts but always fell just shy of success. All six of them had fallen short of their goals and the night ended in disaster, and all six of them returned home disappointed. All were disappointed, except for Rainbow Dash. She was frustrated, she was good enough to be a Wonderbolt and she knew it. Last night would've been her big break but it kept slipping out of reach. "next time" she thought, "next time I'll impress them for sure." the day was generally uneventful and the ponies slept peacefully.

Block E was filled with talking and laughter. The men were under strict orders to get to know each other and the air was alight with conversation. Eric and Yelsen were sitting around their bunks, telling stories of their homes and of childhood memories.

"bullshit." Eric said in disbelief

"I swear it's true." Yelsen threw his hands up defensively

"It took me three months to get used to the F-22's HUD panels. And it took you how long?"

"four weeks."

Eric laughed, "yeah right, if that's true then I owe you a hundred pounds."

"I swear, just ask my old instructor."

"I will, you can count on that."

the entrance to the barracks swung open and the commander walked in. everybody saw him and stood at attention. The commander paused before waving a hand, "at ease."

everybody shuffled a bit and stood more casually.

"now there's going to be test flying today. It's nothing big, we just want to see how the pairs get along. You and your wingman will all be briefed on a mock reconnaissance mission. We'll record your coms and put up some cameras to monitor your progress. Head to the main building in five minutes for briefing."

Twilight had just woken up when a letter suddenly popped through her door. She picked it up and opened the letter, it contained several pages and only the first one was readable. She flipped through it curiously before reading the note.

_Dear Twilight Sparkle,_

_There is a very peculiar spell that I have acquired, I want for you to give it to the princesses and see if they can figure out what it is. I would post this letter to them directly but, I haven't the time to make a trip to canterlot and I doubt that this would get noticed in the downpour of mail she gets everyday. If you could investigate this as soon as possible I would appreciate it._

_ Sincerely,_

_ Julias_

It struck her as odd to be receiving this but she couldn't help but be curious as to what the symbols meant. She began looking through her books and after an hour of searching came up empty handed. She sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking for help on the mysterious letter. She received a reply asking to see the letter and promptly sent the whole packet to her. After a few minutes she received one last reply asking her to get to the palace as soon as possible. Within a few minutes a Canterlot chariot arrived outside of her door. She got on and as they took off, she couldn't help but have a bad feeling about all of this.

The five minutes had passed and the room was filled with pilots from across Europe. The air was tense as all of them felt a slight sense of pride, they all felt like they had something to prove. There was an unspoken competition between every pairing, the room was filled with a deafening silence until the commander walked in.

"good, I see you all had no problem showing up on time. I hope that you all slept well last night because this will be a 24 hour flight. You will fly over Germany and land in Sweden, from there you will scout out a fake enemy naval convoy. Then you'll fly straight back to base for debriefing. You'll be taking off in F-4 Phantoms today and although you will travel together you will be gathering intel independently. Alright, pick a jet and await further instructions."

Twilight charged through the doors panting. She had gotten there as fast as she could, but it still took longer than she was comfortable with. The two princesses were looking over the papers, visibly concerned for the papers. She walked to the base of the steps leading to the throne and waited to be told what was so important.

Princess Celestia put down the papers, "thank goodness that this was sent to you."

"why? What do they say?"

"they're ancient runes of great magical power, if these got into the wrong hands..."

"what? What would happen?"

"It is said that these can summon another world to bring destruction to all of Equestria."

"is there anyway to destroy them?"

"not without activating the magic inside of them, the only thing that we can do is put them were they can never be found again."

"do we have anywhere in Equestria that can hold this kind of power."

"yes... follow me."

Eric and Yelsen were scheduled to be the last ones to take off. Eric was the co-pilot for the mission. Yelsen, not wanting to be a burden, offered to be the co-pilot. Yelsen noticed something on Eric's hip as he clumb into the cockpit.

"what's that?"

"hmm? Oh this?" he pointed at a pistol in its holster.

"can never too careful, it's always good to have a sidearm."

"it's a training mission though, there isn't any danger."

"what if we have a malfunction and crash land in the wilderness. Gotta think of everything out there."

Yelsen made a mental note of this.

"I have a spare, I could get you one if you want."

"it's fine, it's fine."

they sat idle, watching each of the other groups taking off ahead of them. Finally they were called up to take off.

Eric called out the check list,

"Engines"

"check"

"coms"

"check"

"GPS online?"

"check"

"nervous?"

"check"

"where are we going?" Twilight was following Celestia through the dark under belly of the palace.

"it's a special chamber that we put the worst things world in."

The halls were ages old stone dimly lit by torches, it felt cold and condemning. Finally they came upon a massive iron door. The halls were filled with noise as massive gears slowly grinded against eachother. The doors slowly opened and revealed a massive room with a pedestal in the center of it. It struck her odd, the worst thing in the world to be put into such a room. She expected a room filled with all sorts of security, but the only security was an iron door and an underground room. She was quickly corrected as the papers were placed on the pedestal. A bright magical orb enveloped it and turned to crystal. That was it, disaster had been averted... but then the room started glowing brightly. The magic within the runes had been activated by the same magic that sealed it away. Twilight couldn't tell what was happening and shielded her eyes from the light.

"hey, you see that base over there." Eric pointed out the window to some seemingly unimportant buildings.

"yeah."

"that's the large hadron collider."

"it is?"

"yeah, the blokes over there do some crazy things. I hear they're supposed to be testing right now."

"is that so?"

Yelsen stared at it in curiosity, he had never seen it before and it honestly looked rather unremarkable. Suddenly a large black ball began forming out of it and expanding. He suddenly realized that it was expanding rather quickly and it wouldn't be long before it reached the two of them.

"shit Eric, we have a problem."

"why? Wha-" he turned to face Yelsen but stopped at the huge black ball that was growing ever quickly.

"fuck, hang on tight Yelsen!" he quickly banked away from the ball in an attempt to escape.

The light faded, Celestia and the papers were gone, all that was left was dirt and large pieces of metal. There was a massive whole in the ceiling that led outside. She stood blankly before running out of the room. She needed to find Princess Celestia and figure out what was happening before it was too late.

"Shit, I don't think we can outrun it." Eric was cursing under his breath, the orb was growing faster and faster and it wouldn't be long until they were wrapped up in it.

"well," Yelsen spoke in a dull tone, "I guess it's goodbye then."

"been a damn pleasure flying with you."

"heh, didn't even get past the first mission."

"what say we charge into it, guns blazing?"

"can't see why not."

"for the queen eh?"

He turned around and flew straight towards the orb, the jet was outfitted for training and a few fake missiles pitifully fell off of the wings and disappeared into the black orb. Then, they hit it as well. They hit it in the way that one might hit a ghost and passed straight through. They found themselves several miles above the ground surrounded by falling dirt and rocks. Eric could see the compound, helplessly falling towards the ground. He looked at the gauges, everything was either offline or going crazy. His GPS was out, his speedometer was fried and the altitude kept going up. The jet, not acustomed to the height they were at, promptly began to stall. The only thing that could be done was to wait until you were low enough that your wings would pick up lift and keep flying. They fell in helpless freefall for a half of a minute before Eric could regain control. He turned the engines down and began to glide away from the debris above them.

"Yelsen! Whats the damage?"

"Navigations and communications are down, some of the electronics are fried but other than that all other systems are good."

"thank god."

Yelsen looked back, he could see large chunks of earth falling tto the ground. The massive white orb they had flown through was being carried higher and higher into the sky by something, although he couldn't make out what. He turned his attention back to the panels in the cockpit. He laughed as he saw the weapons bay were empty.

"you fired the duds?"

"I said guns blazing didn't I?"

Yelsen laughed, "where are we going to land?"

"hell if I know. let's just see where we are, alright?"

after a few minutes the radios began to come back on. A voice called in through their headsets.

"This is Alpha 1, any units that can hear me, report in."

Eric answered the call, "this is Alpha 15, we hear you, over."

"roger that. What's your status?"

"Navigations are down but other than that we're fit to fly."

"roger, anybody else?"

"this is Alpha 7, we're here."

"status?"

"we're good, Nav systems are down."

"Alpha 4 reporting in."

the reports continued to come in, everbody was present except for Alphas 5, 9, and 10. Alpha 1 appointed itself as the leader of what was left of the squadron.

"I want all units to rally over the town." Alpha 1 instructed.

"wait, theres a town?" Alpha 6 asked in disbelief.

"yeah, it's on the side of the mountain." replied Alpha 2

"you're gonna have to be more specific."

"it's the tallest one of them."

"roger that, I have a visual. Thanks."

Eric and Yelsen could see a few of the jets as they headed over to the city below. One jet was already circling slowly, high over the city.

"this is Alpha 8, I've reached the rally point."

"copy that, stay there until everybody gets there."

"roger."

Twilight bounded up the last flight of stairs and looked up. Her heart sank, above the city were several flying objects. Everypony was looking up in confusion as they circled menacingly above. They created a loud noise as they flew and were unlike anything she had seen before. Then she realized that they must be some of the horrors released to destroy Equestria. She ran through the streets, yelling for everypony to get indoors. Within seconds the streets were cleared and she could see members of the Royal Canterlot Guard flying to fight against the beasts.

"everybody here?" Alpha 1 called through the radio.

"I think that's everyone." Alpha 7 replied.

"we're all present." Alpha 3 confirmed.

"okay, let's move out everbody, follow me." Alpha 1 began to fly towards some large, flat, grasslands.

"whats the plan?"

"there doesn't seem to be any airfields so we're going to find the flattest patch of land and try to crash land."

"isn't there a better solution."

"we only have so much fuel, now we can try to land or crash with an empty tank. Which will it be?"

there was a pause, "fine."

"hey Captain." it was Alpha 14

"what?"

"we better bugger off, there's some animals flying towards us."

Yelsen looked out the window, what appeared to be flying horses with golden armor were quickly approaching the jet formation.

"alright, everybody on me!"

Everybody followed Alpha 1, leaving the horses behind. The 12 jets roared across the landscape in search of a place to land. On their way they passed what appeared to be an ordinary British town. Yelsen called out through the radio, "look down there, there's a town."

"yeah what about it Alpha 15?"

"if we can get down there, maybe we could radio in for help. They must have a radio somewhere in there."

"looks like a backwater town to me, bet they only have a single telephone."

"well it's the only town that I can see. Besides, we could stay there until we figure out what's going on."

"okay, we'll make it a point to get there, but we need to land."

"hold on, I- I see an open field ahead."

they passed over a small forest and found a large, flat clearing. Alpha 1 called out orders as each jet slowly tried to land.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her eyes, several hunks of metal flew past the town. She couldn't believe how fast they were going, she would have to actually try to go that fast. Curious, she took off in pursuit to see just were they were going.

Most of the Alphas had landed, it was down to Eric's jet, and Alpha 1. the field was littered with jets and the grass had been torn up from jet after jet landing. Everybody was amazed that nobody had crashed or broken their landing gear on something.

"alright, just you and me Alpha 15, make your approach and be careful. I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is a crash landing so be prepared to bail out. Just take it slow and it'll be good."

"roger that," Eric replied calmly, "isn't my first crash landing you know."

"let's just hope it isn't your last."

Rainbow Dash watched as the metal beasts swirled around and landed in the field. She wondered what the big deal with landing was, with anything else that flew it was as simple as putting your hooves on the ground. With these, they dragged along the ground before stopping. After half an hour, there was only two jets left. One of the jets flew in slowly and finally made contact with the ground, breaking chunks of the ground as it went. It came to a stop and turned sharply. It slowly trudged out of the way of the last jet as it came to a touchdown and stopped just short of a few trees.

The radios were filled with cheering, we had all made it. Everybody relaxed a little bit as Alpha 1 gave out the order to get out and regroup.

Now the hunks of metal had opened up. Strange creatures stepped out of them, they were unlike anything she had ever seen before. They walked on two legs and had strange, grey skin. They all walked across the field to eachother and huddled around.

Yelsen was surprised just how many of the pilots were armed. Most of them had pistols and one of them had brought an M4 carbine. They all took off their helmets and looked around before Alpha 1 had begun the meeting.

"alright, were are we? Any ideas?"

everybody looked around but was silent.

"nothin' huh? Did anybody see what brought us here?"

Yelsen spoke up, "we were flying past the Hadron collider when a black orb came out of it. It sucked us in and brought us here."

"is that all?"

"that's all I know, sir."

"okay, we need to establish a definite leader. I'm a first lieutenant, is there anybody here higher rank than I am?"

one of the pilots walked up to him and shook his hand, "Captain Jonathan Shuemaker, seeing as I'm highest rank I'll take over this operation."

"a captain? Why didn't you take hold sooner?"

"you were doing well commanding everybody, I assumed you were around my rank. If we make it back home I'll recommend you for promotion, you did good."

Alpha 1 stepped back, Jonathan turned to the rest of us.

"fantastic job getting over here, we'll all make it out of here as long as we can stick together. First order of buisiness is finding other people. I want everybody to cannibalize their jets and take everything of value or use with them. We'll hike to the town in ten minutes. Now go."

the creatures had been talking for a couple minutes and had now scrambled back to their machines. Rainbow Dash saw one of them standing there, he was the one who had been shouting out to the rest of them and was now watching the creatures search their machines. She landed and began to walk up to the creature. It looked over at her and stared with a confused expression on his face.

The blue horse just stood there, Jonathan thought he was hallucinating. The two stared at eachother before the blue horse began talking. "who are you?" Jonathan's mind broke for a few seconds. Finally he managed to make enough sense of the situation to reply, "I'm Captain Jonathan Shuemaker, now what on earth are you?" he tried to identify what it was. It was a horse, no it had wings, it was a pegasus. He thought over what that would mean before settling that either he was going insane, or he was in deep shit.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, I saw you fly past our town and I wanted to know what you were doing."

Yelsen hadn't brought much and was the first to finish searching his jet. He walked up to the captain and stared at the blue pegasus. The two stared in silence, Rainbow Dash could feel the tension building up in the air.

"so, are you going to answer my question?"

Yelsen was a bit more at ease with this strange occurrence. He walked up to Rainbow Dash and jutted his hand out, "I am Yelsen Kozlov, how are you."

"I'm fine, what is it you guys are doing?"

"ah, well, there's a town nearby. We're going to go see if it has a radio so that we can call for help."

"help? You guys are in trouble?"

"yeah, we're not sure were we are. A huge black orb sucked us up into here."

Rainbow Dash extended her hoof out and received a firm handshake. Jonathan grabbed Yelsen on the arm and pulled him back, "just what in the hell do you think you're doing. We don't know if this... this thing is trying to kill us or what. How are you so calm when dealing with it?"

"you were so relaxed just a second ago, why are you all paranoid captain?"

"I thought I was the only one seeing it, apparently it's real and if it's real..."

"if it's real then what? We aren't on earth? I'm terribly sorry commander, but it's being friendly and if it was trying to hurt us then why isn't it attacking one of us?"

"biding it's time maybe."

"I'm not here to hurt you, and I'm a pegasus not a thing." Rainbow Dash cried out in self defense.

"listen, if it backstabs us I'll take the blame but for now it isn't hurting anything."

Jonathan let up his grip on Yelsen's arm. Soon the rest of the men began walking over to the captain, all of them sharing the same bewildered expression. Rainbow Dash felt slightly intimidated by how many of them there were. Finally the last two pilots joined the rest of the group. One of them looked at Rainbow Dash and walked up to her.

"wait a second,"

Rainbow Dash looked at him oddly, "what? What is it?"

"you're Rainbow Dash aren't you?"

"yeah, how'd you know?"

"you're from that my little pony show my daughter watches, yeah she talks about you all the time. Can't get a letter from her without you being snuck in there."

Jonathan relaxed a bit from hearing this, "what are you talking about?"

"this is a pony from a kids show, that's what I'm talking about."

"slow down, what the hell is going on then?"

"we're in a kids show captain."

even Rainbow Dash was shocked to hear this, especially Rainbow Dash.

"a kids show about ponies?"

"yes."

"you're fucking with me right?"

"no, sir."

Yelsen began cracking up. Jonathan glared at him, "what's so funny, Yelsen?"

Yelsen could barely reply between gasps of laughter, "heh, we're the best pilots in the U.N. Trained to pilot the weapons of war to keep peace around the world. And now we're in a show for little girls." he continued laughing, a few of the other men joined in. Jonathan waved a hand for silence, the men quickly became quiet. He looked at Rainbow Dash, "could you take us to the nearest town?"

"no problem, just follow me." before anybody could react she flew up and started flying backwards, "it's just on the other side of this forest."

The men looked at Jonathan, he looked around at them and started walking towards Rainbow Dash, the men following close suit.

Twilight Sparkle was in a panic, there were strange beasts somewhere in Equestria causing mayhem and the Princess was nowhere to be found. Luna was busy keeping debris from falling onto Canterlot, and most of the royal guard were busy tracking down the creatures. She felt helpless, there wasn't much she could do here. She thought of where they were going, "oh no" She cried out in realization that they were headed towards Ponyville. She ran back to where her Canterlot chariot was sitting and called over the nearest two guards. As they flew towards the small town, Twilight worried that she wasn't too late.

"hey Mikey, get the fuck up you aren't going to believe this." Sam said as he shook Michael up out of his bunk.

"Goddamnit Sam, we get put on standby for one week and you spend it waking me up everytime a rookie hits a target." Michael got up out of bed, it wasn't the first time he had an unexpected awakening. As a U.S Ranger, you get woken up almost exclusively when it's inconvenient. He got up and walked out into the Fort courtyard, everybody was looking up in confusion. He looked at the sky and suddenly felt dizzy, there was another goddamn planet in the sky. "what the fuck is going on Sam?"

"hell if I know, all I know is that things are about to get interesting."  
>"interesting, heh, sounds like such a mild word now."<p>

Sam went back into the barracks and came back out with a small radio. He beckoned for all the other rangers to come listen to it as he tuned it to the news. The static turned to fuzz before clearing up to the voice of a news anchor.

"Confusion around the globe as all satellite communications suddenly shut down. Reports of a new planet continue to sky rocket across North and South America. World leaders have yet to make any announcements as to what is going on, or what they plan to do. Observatories around the world are beginning plans to use space telescopes to examine the planet's surface. Many scientists are amazed and excited for this event, while many others remain skeptical of the new planet."

The men had followed Rainbow Dash through the forest, they finally reached a road that lead straight through an apple orchard. Some of the men tried to reach up and grab a few apples before falling behind and running up to the group. After a few minutes they reached the roads of the towns. All of them had expected ponies and humans living together, it made sense to them considering the Victorian architecture. They were just as surprised as the crowds of ponies that filled the streets, staring at them in fear and confusion. Rainbow Dash saw this and flew over to the crowd, "no, no, no they aren't bad. They're cool, really. They're just separated from their home, that's all."

the ponies began to relax and after a few seconds, they returned to whatever they were doing while exchanging bewildered glances at the men. Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief that the ponies didn't go into a panic and began to fly over to the men. "okay, we're off to a good start. Just wait around until Twilight Sparkle gets here, she'll know how to get you guys home." the men looked around before wandering off. Jonathan yelled at the men to rally back to him after ten minutes. The men littered the street leading into the market. Some were confused, some were amazed, and many others were paranoid. Jonathan himself didn't like it, they were outnumbered and in the open. They most likely outgunned these horses but they were still without any support or reinforcements. They hardly even knew where they were. Yelsen was optimistic of the whole situation, he was fascinated by this town of horses and looked forward to meeting this so called Twilight Sparkle. He wandered down the path to the apple orchard. He was hungry and wanted to buy something to eat, he also wanted to see just how horses picked apples. He walked for a few minutes before he saw an orange horse carrying a cart walk onto the road. He walked up to her, Yelsen had spent enough time on the farm to recognize a mare from a mile away. She wore a cowboy hat and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked at him as if she wasn't sure he was real. He stopped a few feet away from her, "hello, I'm Yelsen Kozlov, how are you today."

she looked at him for a second before rubbing her eyes, "just what in the hay are you?" she had a deeply american accent. He furrowed his brow, "you have an american accent, and yet you are nowhere near america."

"what's this america?"

"it- it's another country on another planet. And you sound like you come from there, I don't really understand how."

"another planet? I get it, it's just a dream. Well, I shouldn't be going to work on a perfectly good dream."

"no, it's not a dream, it's just... weird."

"weird? I'm sorry sugarcube but we passed weird awhile ago."

"it's still not a dream."

"if it's not a dream then were do you come from?"  
>"I come from Poland, I signed up for the RAF in Britain and now I've been teleported here somehow. Besides, doesn't this feel a bit real for a dream?"<p>

"it sure does but it's also a bit weird for real life, I've never seen anything like you in my life."

"well, now that we both know that we're awake, I'm Yelsen Kozlov. How are you today?"

"I'm Applejack, I was just on my way to town to sell apples and then you came here."

"how do horses pick apples?"

"horses? I'm sorry but we're ponies, and we don't pick apples, we kick them off of the trees. It's called applebucking, I would show you but there aren't any apples in season."

"you kick the apples out of trees?"

"nah, we kick the trees and the apples fall out."

Yelsen flinched, either the trees were flimsy or these ponies were unbelievably strong.

"do you have any apples for sale?"

"I'm sorry but if you aren't from here then I doubt you have any money."

"I have mo-" he realized that all he had was a few british pounds he had brought with him, "what money do you take?"

"bits, Equestrian bits."

"never heard of them, thank you anyways, have a good day." Yelsen began to walk to the town. Although he was disappointed that he couldn't get something to eat, he was excited to have actually had a conversation with a pony. He walked back to the captain, most of the men had made their way back and were sitting around. Some of them were cleaning their equipment, others had brought something to eat and were munching on a snack. Others were talking to a few ponies who had become curious as to who these strange creatures were. Yelsen joined Eric, who was talking to a colt about Britain and the air force there.

Yelsen listened in on the conversation, "and then there's the F-16, it's able to go at Mach speeds."

"mach speeds?" the colt asked in amazement.

"that means it breaks the sound barrier."

"wow!"

there was quite a crowd building up around the men. Soon all of the men were engaged in asking and answering questions with the ponies. Yelsen was enjoying the sight, there was talking and laughter. It warmed his heart to see the ponies be so accepting of the pilots. He looked over to see a white pony with a horn and a purple mane walk over to him. He snickered, this planet had talking horses, pegasi, and unicorns. This really was a little kids show.

"hello, you don't seem to be busy so might I ask who are you... you..."

"people, I'm Yelsen, pleased to meet you miss..."

"Rarity, I must ask what it is you're wearing. I haven't seen anything like it and it doesn't look to fashionable. I'm sorry to intrude, but what is it?"

"flight suits."

"flight suits? Do they make you fly?"

"no, they help protect us from G forces and high-altitude conditions while flying our jets."

"I'm terribly sorry darling but I don't know what any of those are."

Yelsen sighed, explaining them to her would take awhile, "it helps us stay safe while flying airplanes. Does that answer your question?"

"yes, thank you for your time."

"no problem, you're very cordial."

"I do try to keep formal when meeting strangers for the first time."

"no need of that with us, we spend so much time speaking formally that almost all of us prefer casual."

"I see, what is it that you... people, do anyways?"

"we fly airplanes to keep our home and country safe from enemies."

"enemies? Like what?"

"depends, mostly terrorists these day. We've had the good fortune of avoiding any real wars."

"wars?"

"yeah, I suppose you might not know what wars are but."

"I am aware of what wars are but there hasn't been any in Equestria for centuries."

"exactly, none in Equestria, we don't come from here. We're from a planet called Earth, it ain't exactly peaceful there, so we fight to keep things as safe as possible."

"you- you haven't hurt anybody? Have you?" Rarity was shocked at the thought of talking to someone who had been through a war. She herself had only heard the names of a couple wars that were short and nopony actually died from.

"me? No, but some of the pilots here have, there's a couple veterans among us."

"that's terrible."

"it's not like we go starting fights, whenever we fly, we fly to kill those who have already threatened or harmed us. We fight so that millions of people can sleep tight knowing that we're defending them from the evil people who want to kill them."

the two stood in silence. Yelsen waited for some response or objection to what he did but none came. He eased his stance and grinned at Rarity, "what do you do?"

she stared at him for a second before eventually replying, "I work as a fashion designer at Ponyville."

"heh, a fashion designer eh? Could you, make a custom hat for me? I'll pay of course but."

"sure, what did you have in mind?"

"I'd have to draw it up for you. Later, maybe."

"alright, I'm a bit busy so I'll talk to you later about it. Farewell."

"thanks, goodbye."

Rarity walked off, Yelsen was about to turn his attention to the next pony when Jonathan called for the group's attention. He yelled out to the pilots to rally on him. The men crowded in a circle around him, the ponies watching as they did so.

"Okay, we found the town and it's not what we expected. We can all agree on that. Now I'm all for talking with the towns people but if you'd look to the sky for five seconds you'd realize that the sun is on it's way down." he was right, the day had passed quickly and they had maybe three hours of daylight left, "the point is that we need to make a camp. Seeing as none of us has any money or tents, this is officially a survival situation as far as camp goes. Once we've set up a camp then by all means, talk with the townsfolk. Chat it up, have a good time, but when I give an order you'd better drop whatever you're doing and follow it. The primary objective is still to get home and get rescued, and I don't want any of you to forget that. Am I clear?"

there was a collective, "sir, yes, sir" from the men.

"now that that's settled, move out."

Twilight Sparkle's heart sank, there were several strange creatures outside of the town. They appeared to be walking away. She didn't know what they or what they were doing but they must've been scouting out the town. She called out for the Canterlot guard to land in front of the creatures.

Jonathan gave out a snicker as an elegant chariot being towed by two armored pegasi landed twenty feet in front of them. The pegasi released the straps holding them to the chariot and stood at guard. A purple unicorn jumped out and looked at them fiercely. Jonathan examined them, they appeared to be some sort of military unit. Struck him odd that a kid's show would have a military. He looked back into the crowd behind him, "hey Yelsen, get over here." Yelsen ran up to him through the crowd.

"reporting."

"you seem to be friendly with the ponies here, go have a chat with that little group up there."

"yes sir."

"and cut out with that sir bullshit, nobody's gonna be giving out an after action for this."

"yes si- Jonathan."

"please call me John, now get up there kid, you're up to bat."

Yelsen walked at a cheerful pace towards the three ponies. He extended his hand out to the purple unicorn, "hello, I am Ye- aagh" his body locked up. The unicorn's horn was glowing and Yelsen suddenly found himself unable to move.  
>"agh, the hell is going on?"<p>

the unicorn looked as if it were in a rage and it spoke in a harsh tone, "now I don't know what you are but if you've come here to destroy my home then you've got another thing coming."

"sorry, I- I think we might've gotten off to a bad start. I'm Yelsen erghh, I'm Yelsen Kozlov. We aren't here to hurt you, now please, just... let me go."

"oh no I'm not falling for that, those runes sent you here to destroy Equestria. You're up to something, I just know it!"

"fuck, we aren't up to anything. I don't know of any runes. Okay your world has magic, I get it, but my world doesn't have any magic so it must've been you guys."

the magic loosened up a bit, "you mean, you have no idea what's going on?"  
>"we know as much as you do, even less from the sounds of it."<p>

the magic released and Yelsen fell to the ground. He looked over to see a few of the pilots holstering pistols. He returned his attention back to the unicorn, she looked utterly confused. He got up and extended his hand a second time, slowly this time.

"okay, as I was saying, I'm Yelsen, how are you toady?"

"if you aren't here to destroy us, then why are you here?"

"we have no clue, we just want to find a way home."

"well... that doesn't answer what you're doing right now."

"we were just going to leave town and make camp."

"may I follow you, I'm still a bit curious as to what you're doing."

"take it up with Jonathan, our captain. Though I'd doubt he'd be against it."

"captain? So you're military?"

"yeah, we were on a training mission when we got put here somehow."

"interesting, I would be interested how you organise."

"take it up with the cap' he's just over there."

Yelsen pointed over at the captain, Twilight Sparkle walked up to him. Jonathan smiled at her, "Captain Jonathan, Royal Air Force, I heard the exchange from here and no, I wouldn't mind if you tagged along. I don't want any trouble and neither do you. All I want is to get these men home safe. We're going to be taking a little hike so it might take awhile."

Jonathan led the men through the forest back to were they had all landed. Twilight Sparkle followed along and examined every order and procedur she could. After half an hour they finally reached the jets. Twilight watched as the captain called off orders and after an hour, they had set up several tents made from fallen branches. She looked at the machines, they were the same ones that had flown over Canterlot. She breathed a sigh of relief, atleast if they were hostile she knew where they were. They had set up the small box and the captain was standing around fiddling with it. The sun began to set and after a few more orders, the soldiers began to go to their tents to try and sleep. A couple were still standing around, patrolling the camp. She walked into the camp and asked what the box was, the captain called it a radio and said that he was trying to make contact with home, after a few frustrated minutes he gave up. Twilight began asking questions about who he was, where he was from, and what he was doing. It didn't take long for her to realize that he really did want nothing more than to be home. She looked over the horizon to see the moon rise, only to find the moon accompanied by something massive. What appeared to be a planet was flying alongside the moon through the night sky. The captain suddenly looked very worried.

"oh shit, that's, no. it can't be." the captain said, staring in disbelief at it.

"what? What is it? What is that?" Twilight had a trace of concern in her voice

"wait, I can, I can see Europe. Holy shit that's." Jonathan said, almost yelling.

"what is it?" Twilight said more urgently this time.

"it's Earth! Holy shit that's Earth! We weren't the only ones sent here, our entire goddamn planet got sent here as well. No fucking wonder GPS was down."

Twilight's eyes widened as she realized what this meant, their home was now right there. Sending them back wasn't as simple as using some magic to send them home, now their home was hovering around Equestria. The captain ran through the camps shouting at the men to wake up.

"everybody up and at em' the Earth is up tonight! I want everybody on their radios, they gotta know we're here."

the men slowly got out of their shelters one by one, and they all had the same amazed expression on their face. Twilight looked in horror as to what might happen next. She watched in despair as the soldiers all jumped into their machines and started calling through the radios. Thoughts raced through her mind. what if they were actually hostile? There's an entire world of them hovering menacingly above. And if they were telling the truth, and they did make it home, How would the rest of the world be dealt with? She tried to come up with solutions to no avail. At midnight, she heard one of the machines get a response, "Copy your last Alpha 8, we'll try and patch you through to Fort Galileo, stand by." Twilight felt fear rising in the pit of her stomach. She felt fear as to what the future might hold for Equestria. And as the radio continued being patched through from place to place, she couldn't help but feel that she would be seeing a lot of these soldiers very soon.

Author's notes

my god this turned out huge, I mean seriously. I've started this as a secondary project for when I feel like writing but I don't feel like working on Misplaced. If you like this then you might like that story as well. Also, if chapters this big become common for this story then updates might take awhile. Review, please, it helps me improve my writing, or at the very least that this story is good or bad. Thanks for taking the ungodly amount of time required to read this chapter and this silly little author's notes.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ron awaited the radio call, two years ago when he was elected president he expected economic reform. He expected to worry about unemployment and the wars in the middle east. He never expected to have to deal with being in orbit of another planet. Astronomers around the world were quick to turn on their telescopes and look to the skies. He had received report after report, one astronomer in England discovered many constellations similar to those Earth had. Some people theorize that we are in orbit of the Earth millions of years ago. Others that had a clear view of the planet were finding plant life similar to Earth's and even finding towns. Even individual people with telescopes were trying to get the attention of world leaders. Some rancher in Iowa was trying to name all of the continents and oceans. Truth was, even with everybody around the world trying to see what was happening, nobody really knew what was going on. Religious groups called it armageddon, some said that the planet was heaven and jesus would rapture people soon. Others said that the planet contained our doom, it was all speculation and in the end, everybody was as ignorant as the next. His phone rang, he picked it up knowing all too well what it was.

"This is the President of the United States, what's going on up there?"

there was a short burst of static before clearing up, "hello Mr. President, we are currently on the planet's surface. There is intelligent life here, they are friendly but suspicious of us. I recommend finding a way to get some ambassadors down here."

"noted, how are you holding up?"

"we don't have any rations but there is a town nearby, we may be able to get food if we either the ponies there are accepting of us, if not then we'll find a way."

"I'm sorry did you say ponies?"

"yes, it seems that this planet is exactly the same as a children's cartoon named my little pony."

Ron knew the name, his two daughters loved the show. He had only seen an episode maybe. "my little pony? You're positive?"

"yes sir, there is no doubt about it."

"and how do you know?"

"one of the men has daughters who watch it, he says that he recognizes some of the characters."

Ron was at a loss for words, this was becoming more and more bizarre.

"sir, the radios are only just able to reach you, we don't have much more time to talk." his voice was slowly turning to static.

"just sit tight, do your best to promote peaceful relations, we'll figure out a way to get you home."

"copy that I'l- fzzzzz" he lost the connection. He looked around for a second at the secret service that stood guard in his office. He picked up the phone and dialed a number, "hello Mr. President, what can I do for you?"

"call the world leaders, we need to have a meeting."

The sun rose on the pilot's encampment. The pilots rose up one by one until the sun was high. The captain looked at the men, they were all either fiddling with their equipment or talking with eachother. The morning had a nip in the air, winter was coming. Twilight Sparkle woke up, one of the men had tossed the cloth from a parachute over her as a blanket. A few more of her worries faded as she realized that they even thought of her comfort last night. She stood up and walked to the captain. He was sitting comfortably in the cockpit of his jet as he watched the men wander through the camp.

"I heard you make contact with your president."

he looked down at her, "sure did, he'll figure something out. We've got plenty of scientists back on earth who'll be sure to find a way to get us out of here. We just have to sit tight."

"who is your president? What does he do exactly?"

"the president, he's the man in charge of america. He's one of many leaders around the world."

"how did he become a leader?"

"heh, to put it simply, a bunch of people run for president and whoever gets the most votes is president. It's not that simple but it's close enough. Who's your leader anyways?"

"Princess Celestia."

"Princess? So you have a monarchy going on here?"

"I don't know if I would call it that."

"and why not? Does she have absolute power? Are her words the law?"

"yes, but it's not that simple here either."

"enlighten me, how is it that she was chosen as leader."

"she's leader because she's the oldest, wisest, and most magical pony in all of Equestria."

"heh, how old is she?"

"thousands of years old."

Jonathan felt a chill go down his back, thousands wasn't a number he anticipated.

"how... how magical?"

"she raises the sun everyday and her sister, Princess Luna raises the moon. They rule together and protect the land from harm."

Jonathan suddenly realized what he was hearing. He hadn't just questioned this unicorn's leaders, he questioned her gods. For the first time since his first day of combat in Iraq, his hands were trembling. Twilight Sparkle could see his face turn pale.

"don't worry though, they're also the fairest ponies so I'm sure we can get this straightened out."

the captain sat silently for a few minutes before Yelsen cheerfully walked up to the jet and greeted him.

"good morning, sir! The men are getting restless, what are your orders for today?"

Jonathan turned his head to look at Yelsen. "okay," he thought, "everything is fine just don't let the men see you worried and they'll keep calm. Just keep calm for now."

He took a breath and steadied his heart rate. "Yelsen, take the men to the town. Treat it as if you were on leave, put Alpha 1 in command in case something goes wrong."

"Alpha 1? but sir, aren't you coming."

"no, I'll stay here and guard the camp, besides I have to think over what we need to do."

"okay sir, I'll go inform the men." Yelsen looked at Twilight, "come on, I think the captain needs some time alone."

Yelsen walked through the camp rallying the men and informed Alpha 1 of his position. Twilight watched and carefully noted code words. She had figured out that "sir" was used to refer to leaders and that "Alpha" was some sort of codename. She was intrigued to learn more of the soldiers and their organization. In the back of her head she worried about how Princess Celestia might react to these soldiers. She hoped that she would be understanding when the time came and continued to follow the men through the woods.

The leaders lined the seats of the United Nations building in New York. They were all looking at one man standing at the podium in the center. Ron took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

"Gentlemen, at 1:28 AM last night we received radio contact from the missing Alpha squadron. They are currently on the surface of the new planet that we are now in orbit of. They have confirmed that the planet contains intelligent life, and have reccomended that we seek peace with them. I hope you all realize the importance of this event as our actions today will change the course of history. I am preparing plans for NASA to develop a shuttle to conduct scientific and diplomatic projects on the planet. I hope that we may contact this new, alien life, and create a peaceful and prosperous relationship between our two worlds. I now leave this topic open to debate." Ron stepped down from the podium and sat down at his seat. Already the leaders had begun arguing about how to react to the new planet.

"I've read the reports, the planet seems primitive. I believe that we should attempt to establish colonies."

"this isn't a modern day Africa, if this planet is primitive then we should give it new technologies."

"It would be benificial to-"

"it would be beneficial to us and us alone. Imperialism died a long time ago now let's keep it dead."

Ron sat quietly as the leaders all argued of what to do. There was much debate but without solid intel nobody could truly make the right choice. He worried as to the consequences of the wrong choice.

Twilight Sparkle kept scanning the skies for any signs of Princess Celestia, it wasn't likely that she would see her but it helped calm her down a little. The men had finally reached the town and almost immediately were bombarded by the questions of many curious ponies. Twilight smiled at the scene, she couldn't see how these creatures could possibly want to destroy Equestria. Yelsen walked up from behind her and stood next to her.

"so, you're a unicorn... what exactly do unicorns do around here?"

"there is only a few medical and scientific jobs that require unicorns these days. It's really up to whatever they want to do. What is exactly that you do?"

"us? We keep our home and country safe from harm. That's what the jets are for."

"jets?" Twilight understood, the machines somehow helped keep their land safe, although she was still curious as to how. "what do those do?"

"uh, well..." Yelsen scratched the back of his neck. "we outfit them with guns and bombs and if something tries to kill us or our people we..." Yelsen sighed, he was explaining war to my little ponies. Twilight closed her eyes and nodded, "I see." Yelsen looked at her in surprise, "you do?"

"yes, there used to be wars centuries ago before Celestia and Luna brought peace to the ponies."

"there... there were wars?"

"yes, is that really so shocking to you?"

"I- I didn't expect your people to have wars."

"it's sad but true. I'm just curious, why do you find this strange."

"because one of the men says that this world is exactly the same as a show for 6 year old girls back on my planet."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"it's probably just a coincidence but..."

Twilight was put off by this, she never did believe in coincidences and especially not ones this big. The two stood in silence before Yelsen tried to change the subject, "so, I'm just wondering, the men will be hungry soon and I want to know how we are going to feed all of them."

"I'm sure that we can work something out."

"yes, I don't think that the captain would be against the men helping out around around town. As you can see, we aren't doing anything other than answer questions and talk to the people here."

"people?" Twilight looked over at Yelsen.

"should I call them horses?"

"no, just call them ponies."

"okay, that makes more sense. Thank you, I'll be going now. I want to see the rest of the town."

"a pleasure talking to you."

"you too."

Yelsen walked past the crowds of pilots and ponies into the town. The first road he walked onto was the market district. Immediately his nose was filled with the smell of bakeries and restaraunts. He dove into his pocket and pulled out a single Hersheys chocolate bar. He smiled at it as he put it back to save it for later. He walked at a brisk pace into the town, an eternal smile on his face.

Jonathan had finally calmed down and thought things through. He now knew who their leaders were and how powerful they were. He realized that beings of that power could easily take over the world, although after seeing how happy everything was over here he feared of the resistance more than the rule. He sighed as he stepped out of his cockpit, his men were out there wandering around, and he wasn't sure that Alpha 1 could deal with this kind of situation. He could only pray that nothing bad happened yet.

Ron stepped out of the presidental limo and into the airfield holding NASA's new shuttle being designed for projects on the new planet. The Secret Service followed him as he walked to the opening hangar doors. They opened to reveal an AC-130 surrounded by scientists and mechanics. The project manager looked up from his clipboard to greet the president.

"Good evening, Mr. President, it's and honor."

"Good evening, I see you are working fast. What is it exactly that you are doing?"

"ah, yes, we are working to convert an AC-130 into a space shuttle."

"why an AC-130?"

"because of it's size and how easily it would be to convert it."

"what are you doing exactly?"

"we are going to strengthen the wings and add all of the neccesary insulation for re-entry. We are also going to add jet turbines and make it able to sustain the pressures that outer space will exert on it."

"you're giving it jet turbines, won't that leave it stranded when it leaves the atmosphere, and what jet engines do we have that can leave orbit."

"none, sir. But that is why we are also going to be fitting it with several rockets for leaving the earth's orbit and getting back. We also have done some calculations and we are close enough to the other planet that we would only have to aim a few hundred miles ahead of our landing zone to land on target."

"I see, when can I expect the first mission to the other planet?"

"next month."

"next month? That can't be right."

"normally it wouldn't, but this is simple compared to designing a rocket from scratch. Besides, we were going to have the first mission carry military personell to set up a base camp to launch future missions from."

"so this will carry construction equipment?"

"yes, it will also have special shocks and tires that will be able to land on any flat offroad surface."

Ron circled around the plane. He didn't like the sound of this project, there were too many things that could go wrong. He sighed and looked at the project manager, "very well, continue."

"Hey Mikey!" Sam beckoned Micheal over to the radio. Many soldiers were also gathered around the radio as it broadcasted the lastest news of the alien planet.

"Debate over the new planet continues as the president released an audio recording of a conversation with the missing Alpha mission."

The sound clip played the men listened in disbelief as Alpha explained the possibility that the alien world was exactly the same as a kid's show.

"Many astrologists have confirmed reports of towns and even cities on the planet's surface. one observatory reports seeing horselike creatures inhabiting the planet's surface, adding crediblity to Alpha's reports. This has been BBC world news and we will keep you up to date on any new breakthroughs."

Sam laughed, "hah, what a load of bullshit! There's no way in hell we got put into orbit of some stupid pony show. Hey Ralphie, bet you want to be on that planet right now eh?"

Ralph put on his helmet, Rainbow Dash painted on the side.

"shut the fuck up Sam, half of the characters on that show are more mature then you'll ever get."

"yeah, yeah, whatever pony boy."

the men began to walk away and continue whatever they were doing. Ralph walked back to his bunk, flipped on his laptop, and watched the newest episode of season two.

Yelsen had found a map of Equestria on the side of the road, he brushed the dust off of it and stared at it long and hard. The text was unreadable but he could recognize the illustrations. There was a picture of a castle on the side of a mountain in the center of the map. He rolled it up and began to find his way back to the rest of the group. He turned the final corner when he saw it.

Jonathan was talking with Twilight Sparkle as to how to react to Princess Celestia, he was relieved that she was just as concerned about her as he was. Twilight pointed to the sky and he saw her. She was a massive unicorn with wings, her mane looked like the aurora borealis and she wore a crown.

Jonathan's eyes widened and he shouted to the rest of the men, "Everybody form up NOW!"

the men all simultaneously bolted away from the ponies and gathered behind him.

"don't draw your weapons, everybody stand down!"

Princess Celestia landed, dust flew up and the ground shook. Jonathan couldn't believe what he was seeing, she stood as tall as an elephant and looked just as unshakeable. She also looked incredibly pissed. She opened her mouth and and the men covered their ears as a loud, commanding voice boomed out. "creatures from another realm, leave our land alone or face the consequences." some of the men had been knocked over, others were cringing from what was happening. "which shall it be? Will you flee or will there be war?"

Jonathan had felt another feeling he hadn't felt in a long time; helplessness. He picked himself up and looked up at Celestia. He shouted back up at her, "nei- neither, we were brought here by forces unknown to us. We do not wish to destroy your world we only wish to return to our own."

Celestia continued to speak in her booming voice, "the forces that brought you here were designed to bring forth the end of Equestria. It brought your world here so therefore, you are sent to destroy us and our way of life."

"we do not wish to destroy anything of yours."

"is that what your leader would tell me?"

"yes, we are under strict orders to promote peace. We are simply awaiting our rescue."

"name your leader!"

"We have many leaders."

"name YOUR leader."

"I answer to the President of the United States."

"I shall ask him then, I will be the judge of wether or not HE wants war. If he does, then you are all enemies of Equestria, if not then you shall be allowed to stay here until you are rescued but no longer."

She raised her wings up and shot them down. The air exploded as a colorful streak of light flew straight into the sky. The rest of the men fell down and Jonathan stumbled back a few feet. His heart was pounding and his legs trembled as he stood up. He coughed a few times before falling to his knees. Yelsen ran to the captain's side, "what was that, captain?"

"the leader of these ponies. Yelsen,"

"yes captain?"

"find Alpha 1, put him in charge until further notice. If he is unable to lead, I'm putting you in charge."

"are you okay?"

"Probably, but I'm in no shape to lead. Now go, shit just got real Yelsen."

Ron rubbed his temples, his desk was filled with papers, reports, and proposals regarding this new planet. His phone rang, "The president's office." he greeted whoever was calling him.

"this is Lieutenant Major Willis, Princess Celestia is demanding to see you."

"I beg your pardon? What the hell is going on?"

"she's on her way to the white house, she says that she wants to have a talk with you."

"what does she look like? Who is she? How did she get here?"

"you'll know her when you see her." the connection shut off.

Ron put down the phone and walked swiftly out of the office. He went down to the courtyard and stood on the White House lawn. He didn't take his eyes away from the skies as he told his guards not to draw any weapons. A bright ball of light came shooting across the country and landed several feet in front of him. The guards stumbled back as the landing shook the ground and stirred up a sharp wind, blowing leaves across the grass. He took a deep breath and calmly shouted over to the massive unicorn that now stood on the White House's freshly cut lawn.

"I assume that you are Princess Celestia."

Ron almost jumped when her booming voice dashed across the ground, stirring up even more leaves.

"that is correct, and I assume that you are the president of this land."

"yes, I am President Ron Lewis. I am pleased to meet the leader of the planet we now orbit. I hope that our two worlds might work together in harmony."

"I wish for that as well, however the magic that sent you here was meant to send the bringers of our doom. Until I am certain that this is false, I cannot fully trust you."

"magic? I'm terribly sorry but magic doesn't exist."

"it exists, wether you realize it or not."

"we received radio contact from men on your planet last night, we are making arrangements to rescue them."

"I expect them to be rescued within the week."

Ron was surprised by this, "I'm sorry, but we won't have a working prototype of a rescue craft until next month."

"so your planes are not capable of flying between worlds?"

"no, we don't have much space travel, what we do have is risky and expensive."

"hmm, it seems that I have misjudged your civilization. Before I pass any judgement however, I must know what you plan on doing exactly."

"we aren't sure ourselves, we certainly don't want a war. There will be a United Nations meeting later this week on the subject your planet, I could arrange for your world to have a seat at the meeting."

"very well, when is this so called united nations having it's meeting?"

"in two days."

"I shall see you then."

"until next time, Princess Celestia."

Car alarms went off as the Princess flew back to Equestria. Ron looked into the sky until she disappeared from sight. He turned and walked back to the White House, the UN was having a surprise guest in two days.

Alpha 1 had fainted from the Princess's visit. Yelsen looked around at the men as he realized what this meant. Everybody had heard the captain's orders and they all looked to him for orders. He looked at the confused men, he himself wasn't sure what to do.

"Alright, the captain and Alpha 1 are unfit to command so," he swallowed, "that makes me commander. I am Yelsen Kozlov, I'm not sure what to do so let's just sit tight until... until..." Yelsen wasn't sure where to go, he had never been a leader before and as he looked at the men he felt the need to say something profound and inspiring. "let's just sit tight for now." Twilight Sparkle was releived that the men hadn't reacted violently to the Princess. She looked at Yelsen, he was obviously uncomfortable to be put in charge of so many people so suddenly. He tried to look confident as he nervously looked at the crowd of pilots. Twilight worried for Yelsen and the group of soldiers.

"Hey Sammy! You can go fuck yourself!" Ralph called out across the fort courtyard. Sam put down a basketball and started charging across to him, "eh, what you say Ralphie?"

"listen to the radio and suck it."

the radio flicked on and tuned in to BBC world news.

"President Ron Lewis has just announced that Princess Celestia, leader of the pony civilization known as Equestria, will be attending the UN meeting in two days. The President commented on this saying that it will be quote, promote peaceful relations between our two worlds."

"what the hell is this shit Ralphie? Is this some sort of prank? How'd you pull this off?"

"it's serious, Equestria exists, just thought that you'd like that."

The sun was setting on Ponyville and the temperature began to drop. The men were getting hungrier and hungrier. Yelsen suddenly realized his own hunger and looked over to Twilight Sparkle, who was still watching to see what Yelsen would do.

"hey, uh, Twilight Sparkle."

"what's wrong Yelsen?"

"oh, nothing much, it's just that these men haven't eaten anything all day, and I'm not sure how I can get food for all of them."

She nodded her head, "let me see if Applejack can help."

Applejack was finishing up the last few chores before dinner when she saw Twilight Sparkle leading dozens of the people that had been stranded in Equestria. She walked over to her to greet her.

"hello Twilight, what can I do ya for?"

"These soldi- people, are hungry and none of them have any food. If you could give them something to eat I would be grateful."

"I dunno, there's a lot of them. I'll see what I can do."

Applejack walked into the barn, after a few minutes she pulled out a barrel of apples. She pulled the top off of it and made a gesture for the men to come take a few. Yelsen got to it first and looked into it, it was filled the brim with fresh, red, apples.

"you fellas can eat apples right?"

"of course we can." he turned to the men, "okay, I want everybody to come and take an apple. We're guests here so don't take too much."

"oh, no, no," Applejack said, waving a hoof at him, "take what you want, really."

"thank you, this is a great help."

The men all circled around the barrel, taking a few apples each. Yelsen was the last to take out of the barrel. He took a couple of apples out of the bottom of the barrel.

"I'm sorry to be a burden, if you need any help, I'm sure I can find a way to make myself usefull."

"nah, it's no problem. If Twilight says that yer okay then you can't be too bad."

"Thank you."

After the men finished happily munching on apples they all took a few more to stuff their pockets with for later. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Yelsen all stood watching the men as they enjoyed their first meal in a full 24 hours. Yelsen felt grateful at the generosity of these ponies and was confident that they would get out safely.

Two days had went by, Yelsen continued to lead the pilots and Applejack continued to supply them with apples. Ralph continued to taunt Sam over Equestria being real and Ron took a deep breath as he walked into the main room of the UN meeting center. Princess Celestia's seat had been set up at the very end of the rows of the regular seats. It consisted of a large pad with a desk in front of it. On the desk was a stack of papers, and ink vial, and a quill. At the request of the president, she agreed not to use her Royal Canterlot Voice. Ron walked to the podium in the center, there were cameras set up by several news networks from around the world. He took a deep breath as the entire world watched his every move.

"Gentlemen, over the past week we have been in heated debate as to what the new planet is and what is on it. Many of those questions have been answered with the arrival of Princess Celestia. She has joined our meeting today in hopes of finding a good solution to this sudden crisis and to represent the interests of Equestria. I now give the podium to Princess Celestia."

He stepped down from the platform and sat down next to his translator. Celestia stood and walked to the podium.

"Good evening leaders of Earth. I understand that you are all the leaders of your individual countries and will respect that. What I came here to do is ask a question, a simple one. The magic that sent your world here sent you here with the intention of you destroying Equestria. So I must ask of you all, shall there be a peace, or will our two worlds clash. I want an answer from all of you. Now then, who here would like peace between our lands?" everybody in the room, even the news staff, raised their hands. Celestia nodded, "and who here apposes this peace?" not a single hand was lifted from their desks. She closed her eyes and nodded once more, "very well, the men that have been stranded in Equestria are welcome for as long as it takes to rescue them. If you ever want to send anybody to my world I simply ask that you ask for my approval before you send anything to Equestria. As of right now, I have no quarries with you constructing an embassy in the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot. All that I ask is that we may continue to have peace. That is all I have to say."

She stepped down and sat back at her seat in the UN. She sat down and began to write a letter to Twilight Sparkle. Several of the leaders stared in disbelief as her horn glowed. The letter disappeared and people around the world watched in disbelief at the magic on their TVs.

Twilight Sparkle was watching the men eat apples for the third day in a row when Spike ran to her with a letter. She opened it up and began to read it.

_Dear faithfull student, Twilight Sparkle_

_ I have attended a meeting with the leaders of Earth. It is obvious that they do not wish for the end of our world and wish for peace. As such the men who have become stranded at Ponyville are now welcome. Please spread the word to any concerned ponies that these creatures have no obvious intention of harming Equestria._

_ Sincerely,_

_ Princess Celestia._

Yelsen had walked over to her, half eaten apple in hand. "what does the letter say?"

"Princess Celestia attended a meeting with your president and we're at peace now."

"we weren't at peace before?"

"there was a bit of a panic over you guys."

"well atleast we aren't being rushed out of here. That's one less thing to worry about."

"one less thing for you and me both."

The two both breathed a sigh of relief. Yelsen had become more confident as a leader but he still wasn't able to think quickly when things became stressful. He just hoped that those things came with time.

Meanwhile, at Fort Rowlinson, Ralph continued to taunt Sam at the fact that Equestria was formally a part of the United Nations. NASA had come to the fort looking for Rangers to send to Equestria to stage a rescue mission. The only people who passed were Ralph and Michael. All night for the next two weeks, Ralph would stay up late, an earbud in each ear, watching season 1 and season 2 over and over. Celestia had been informed that the military would be the first to land in Equestria and had agreed not to take it the wrong way. Celestia had also agreed to send an atlas of Equestria for printing in the continued to modify their AC-130 and were making phenomonal progress. Lauren Faust denied any intention of predicting the future and called the whole thing, "A spectacular coincidence." Hasbro's sales for My Little Pony toys skyrocketed across all demographics, and they began to produce a "male friendly" line of ponies.

Yelsen sighed, staring up at the earth in the night sky. The sun shining brightly on it from around the side of Equestria. He was excited, worried, and amazed at what had happened and couldn't wait to go home and tell his family all about it. He even had a bar of Equestrian chocolate waiting for them.

Author's notes

one thing that I noticed and hope to continue is long chapters. Another thing is multiple perspectives. I'm still not sure where I'll go with the story but it'll show up eventually and when it does it will be fantastic. Thanks for reading and extra thanks for any reviews.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Yelsen strolled through the markets, saluting a fellow pilot as he passed him. The pilot gave him a smile and saluted back. He had become more confident in leading the men, he had to be. The captain had stopped trying to be the leader, every time Yelsen asked him why he claimed to have been broken. It wasn't until recently that Yelsen figured out that he was referring to his morale, he had lost the will to be brave and lead on. Yelsen couldn't blame him for it, being the commander with twenty or so lives in your hands was a massive burden. Alpha 1, when he regained consciousness, refused to lead claiming that he "didn't sign up for this shit" so Yelsen had continued to lead, and had done a good job of it so far. Many of the men had found jobs helping the ponies around the town. After three weeks underneath foreign skies, the men had become settled down and were simply treating this as an extended leave.

Yelsen knocked Rarity's door, piece of paper in hand. Rarity opened the door, "good morning, darling, how are you?"

"I'm fine, I want to ask you something."

"yes, what is it?"

"could you some how make this?" he showed her the piece of paper, it had a drawing of a Russian hat. Rarity looked it over, she pointed at the flaps on the sides of the hat, "what are those for?"

"what, these? They can fold up or down and keep your ears warm."

"oh..."

Yelsen smiled brightly at Rarity, she took the drawing and rolled it up.

"I'll see what I can do, come back tomorrow and I'll have it ready."

"thank you."

Yelsen walked off as she closed the door. He was proud of his Russian ancestors and had always wanted a Russian hat, although he never could find one before now. He beamed with joy as he made his way towards his next stop; Twilight Sparkle's library.

Ron stepped out of the presidential convoy and walked across the runway to the opening hangar doors. The AC-130 now had jet engines on each wing, and thrusters were being attached to special rocket pods around the rear of the plane. The project manager jumped down from a scaffolding and shook the president's hand.

"good evening, Mr. president. I would like to inform you that we are making amazing progress on the shuttle. It will have it's first test flight in three days."

"Great, I understand that you have been recruiting around the world for the right people to send to Equestria."

"yes, we will be sending a medic, four scientists, three rangers, and one of your Navy Seals."

"no diplomats?"

"that's what the Navy Seal is for, he has received extensive training in promoting good political relations while in foreign territory."

"how did you choose these people?"

"we chose them based on performance, and personality traits. We chose these eight people to represent the world. The Rangers will be setting up the landing strip for another shuttle to bring down extra equipment and people. The scientists will conduct experiments and pilot the shuttle, and the medic is there for obvious reasons. We plan on sending three more eight man teams to set up the base before creating a much smaller shuttle. That will carry small loads of passengers and supplies."

"fantastic, keep up the good work."

Ron took another look around the shuttle. It's wings looked much more sturdy and it was coated with insulation. Ron left the air base wondering about what the success of this project would bring. It would undoubtedly produce a demand for certain people to live in Equestria, he began to ponder the possibilities.

The Humvee barreled down the highway towards the airfield that was holding the shuttle prototype. Michael looked up from his cell phone at Ralph, who was sketching up some sort of horse. The third ranger that was chosen sat quietly in the front seat of the Humvee, listening to his Ipod in silence. Michael tapped him on the shoulder, he lifted his head and looked back at him. He took out his earbuds and paused the song that was playing through the earphones.

"Yes?"

"Hello, Corporal Michael, pleased to meet you."

"Hi, Michael, Private First Class Rivers, I assume that you got chosen too."

"Yeah, me and Ralphie over here. Are you excited to be one of the first to set foot on the new planet."

"Equestria? Dude, you have no idea."

"Yeah Ralph is real excited, he's one of those bronies or whatever you call them."

Ralph looked up and waved at Rivers. Rivers smiled at him, "you too? Who's your favorite."

"Rainbow Dash, yours?"

"Derpy." Rivers lifted up his helmet to reveal Derpy Hooves drawn onto the front of his helmet. Michael looked at the cross eyed pony in amusement. "so it's not just Ralphie, eh? What is this pony thing anyways?"

Michael sat back as the two told him about the characters and the show. They continued for a few minutes before getting into a discussion with eachother about the antics of their favorite characters. The driver sighed and put on his headset, tuning it to the radio. Ralph pulled out his Iphone and pleaded for Michael to watch the first two episodes. He sighed and took the Iphone and watched as the narrator began to talk about the magical world of Equestria.

Yelsen knocked loudly on Twilight Sparkle's door. He gazed in wonder at the architecture of the tree library until finally the door opened. He expected to see Twilight but instead looked down to see a purple lizard. It looked up at him in confusion, "You're one of those pilots, aren't you?"

"yes, I am Yelsen, I wanted to see Twilight Sparkle."

"Wait here, I'll go get her."

The door closed and after a few minutes Twilight opened the door, "Hello Yelsen, what is it that you want?"

"Who is that purple lizard?"

"That would be Spike, he's a baby dragon."

Yelsen raised an eyebrow, "Dragon? There's dragons here too?"

"yes, but what is it that you came here for?"

"I wanted to know how to read Equestrian, it would make things easier for us if we knew how to read eachother's words."

"good, I was beginning to become curious as to what your language was as well. Come right this way, I'll teach you how to read and you can do the same."

Yelsen followed Twilight into the library, eager to learn Equestrian.

Jonathan woke with a start, his heart was pounding and he was in a cold sweat. He looked outside, it was midday. He punched the side of his cockpit, he shouldn't be waking up so late after being in the military for so long. The way Princess Celestia had made him feel brought back bad memories of his Chinook getting shot down in Iraq. Ever since his run in with the Princess he was tormented by bad memories and flashbacks. He knew the cure, it was the only cure, he needed to go home. And so Jonathan had put Yelsen in charge, too lost in his own head to deal with the situations happening in real life. Jonathan jumped out of his jet, feeling weak and disorganized.

Yelsen looked at the symbols on the chalkboard. He was surprised that Equestrian was similar to English. Many of the letters and sounds had been condensed and there were different symbols, but beyond that nothing was different, not even the spelling. The two had been working for a couple of hours and while Yelsen was completely baffled by Equestrian, Twilight was quick to understand English. She pointed at the rows of letters, "I get it now, the only difference between our languages other than the symbols is that K, C, Z, and S have all been condensed into one letter for Equestrian."

"huh," Yelsen finally understood, "that's the damndest coincidence I've heard of."

"I can't quite understand it either, it makes no sense."

"wait, if we have different alphabets then don't we also speak differently."

"you don't sound any different from Equestrian."

"well that's odd because I am speaking English right now."

The two stood in wonder at how two worlds, separated by an unmeasurable distance, had almost identical languages. Yelsen shifted his weight and looked down at Twilight, "Well, thank you for helping me. I have other things to do, I will see you again later."

"You're leaving? Shouldn't you copy this down or something? I'm sure your people would appreciate this."

"you're right, how about I tell the men that it's here and they can copy it down themselves? Then I could explain it to them tonight. Yeah, that might work out."

"Alright, it was nice working with you Yelsen."

"Thank you, have a good rest of your day."

Yelsen walked away from the library, the sun was high in the sky and many of the men would be having lunch soon. Although there were several restaraunts in the market district, most of the men preferred "The Toasted Daisy" and every day they would fill the seats that had been set up outside. Yelsen marched out to the restaurant and took a seat. A waiter approached him, "ah, another one of the pilots, what can I get for you today?"

"I would like a salad and a glass of milk."

The waiters had become used to the pilots and no longer served them hay or flowers, they instead used lettuce and other people-friendly greens. The waiter came back with a bowl of salad and a glass of milk. Yelsen munched on his lunch while more and more of the pilots started to fill the seats. Although many of them missed having bacon for breakfast, every animal and insect on this planet was sentient and actuall had friends and family. This forced all of the men to switch to being vegetarian, they still drank milk and oddly enough the restaraunts served eggs, but vegetarians none the less. Yelsen finished his salad and wiped off his face, he stood up and called for everybody's attention.

"Hello, I hope you are all enjoying lunch today. I wanted to announce that the complete Equestrian and English alphabet is currently written on a chalkboard at the library. I want all of you to copy them down and bring them to camp tonight, I've figured out how to read Equestrian. That is all."

Yelsen walked away, content with his progress. He was surprised to see some of the ponies turn to walk in the library's direction, they would undoubtedly want to see the English alphabet. He smiled as something so mundane was suddenly so very interesting as he continued to make his way to Fluttershy's house.

Michael looked at the AC-130, it was modified almost beyond recognition. The three rangers stood in a line as the project manager led four scientists wearing jumpsuits to them. The project manager looked at the two groups and then down at his clipboard, "Rangers, this is our research team, you need to defend them from any hostilities and set up the base camp. There will be a Navy Seal and a medic joining you however they are both still being flown in. I have to oversee other things so just introduce yourselves. Rangers, if you have any questions, take it up with Lieutenant Sherman."

The Rangers nodded, after the project manager had walked away the researchers walked up to them and began introducing themselves.

The first was a short, thin man wearing glasses, "Hello, Timothy Walker, Biologist."

next was a blonde haired lady, "Madame Charlotte Dubois, Meteorologist. A true pleasure to be working with you americans."

then a tall man stepped forward "Watson Deringer, Astrologist."

finally the last one stepped forward, he had a special red band on his arms, "Lorry Charleston, I'll be flying this shuttle."

The two groups shook eachother's hands, the rangers introduced themselves and were having a lovely chat when the Navy Seal and the medic arrived. The Seal was the first to greet the group, "Commander Montag, I'll be overseeing the diplomatic projects during the mission."

The medic finally caught up with the Seal and set down two massive duffel bags to greet the others. He spoke in a deeply Texan accent, "Howdy, Bill Forrester, how ya'll doing."

Michael looked at all of the bags he had strapped around his body, "what's with the gear? Field surgeons don't carry as much as you do."

"yeah, well field surgeons don't have to set up a medical tent from scratch then amputate an arm five minutes after an mortar strike."

Everybody suddenly looked in shock at the bags with a newfound respect for the man. Montag laughed and gave Bill a pat on the back, "I don't know about you but I already like this guy" The rest just stared in shocked silence. 

Yelsen knocked on Fluttershy's door, shortly after the yellow pegasus opened her door. She looked up at him, clearly not expecting a pilot to be standing on her doorstep.

"Hello, what is it?"

"Good afternoon, Fluttershy is it?"

"Yes."

"Good day, I was wondering if you had any pets available for adoption."

"Yes, why do you want a pet?"

"I always had a dog back when I was a little kid and I've never had one since. I would always try to talk to the dog and could never figure out why it wouldn't talk back to me. The dogs on earth aren't as smart as the ones here are, so I was hoping for a pet dog that I could actually talk to."

"Oh, well there's plenty of dogs, just follow me."

Fluttershy lead Yelsen to the backyard where she took care of the animals. The animals looked at Yelsen with curiosity.

"None of the animals here can actually talk but they can understand you."

"Perfect."

Yelsen strode across the grassy field. He sat down on top of a small dirt mound, watching as all of the animals went about their day. A black dog with brown spots walked up to him. Yelsen extended his hand out for the dog to smell it, the dog simply looked stared at it as if unsure what he was doing. The dog looked up at him then back at his hand, it lifted up its paw and put it into Yelsen's hand. Yelsen was surprised, amazed, and confused as he shook the dog's paw.

"That was not what I expected." Yelsen said with a smile.

The dog cocked it's head questioningly.

"Back on my planet, you usually let dogs that haven't seen you before sniff your hand to get used to your scent."

The dog gave a quick nod, surprising Yelsen even more.

"Did you... nod?"

The dog nodded again.

"Oh, I'm sorry, the dogs on my planet aren't nearly as smart as the ones here. I've noticed that all the animals here are smart but to have a conversation with a dog... it feels unusual."

The dog rolled it's eyes.

"I'm sorry, let's try again. I'm Yelsen Kozlov, how are you today?"

The dog panted.

"Good to hear it, are you a boy?"

The dog nodded. Yelsen was starting to become more comfortable with talking to animals and getting responses.

"I'm looking for a pet dog, would you like to be my pet?" Yelsen couldn't help but feel ridiculous. He was the first person in history to actually ask for a pet's consent and not be insane doing it. The dog nodded and began to wag it's tail.

"Okay, do you have a name or should I give you one?"

The dog lifted a paw and pointed at Fluttershy, who was watching the scene unfold. Yelsen leaned over to look at her, "Hey Fluttershy, what's this dog's name?" he shouted across the field. She said something but he couldn't hear her from how far away she was. "I'm terribly sorry but you'll have to repeat that." She said something again. Yelsen sighed as he stood up. He walked to Fluttershy, dog following him excitedly.

"I'm sorry but you're too quiet, I still didn't catch his name."

"His name is Kobel."

Yelsen looked down at Kobel, "Well then Kobel, I need to introduce you to the men." Kobel followed close behind Yelsen as he began to walk back to the camp. Yelsen was excited to have an Equestrian dog, he may even adopt him as Alpha squadron's mascot.

Ron picked up the phone as it began to ring. He had been informed to be expecting a call from some meteorological department, they supposedly had something important to tell him.

"This is the president speaking."

"Hello Mr. President we have very concerning news regarding Equestria."

"Go ahead."

"It seems that since our planets are so close, it's gravity is affecting the tide. We are working on a new high tide low tide chart but in the meantime certain cities may be in danger of flooding."

"How so?"

"Well, since the planet is about the same size as ours, it creates an extreme high tide. some areas are experiencing raises in water level as high as three feet!"

"Alright, what cities are in danger?"

"mostly coastal towns and cities. Prevention is easy, just set up sandbags along coast lines in affected cities and that should stop it. The trouble is that cleanup could reach into the millions along the eastern and western seaboard."

"Okay, I'll dispatch the national guard. Is there anything else that I should know?"

"Not as of right now, we're keeping our eyes peeled on a few tropical depressions but this is the only thing you need to know of."

"One more thing, it's been a month since we've been in orbit of Equestria, how am I just now hearing this?"

"It's taken this long to properly record it. It hasn't happened yet out of sheer luck, I said that cities are in _danger_ of flooding, we still aren't sure if that will actually happen yet."

"I'll make sure that floods are prevented, thanks for bringing this to my attention."

"Of course, Mr. President."

Ron hung up the phone and called up the National Guard, they were going to be having a busy night.

Yelsen made it back to camp just as the sun began to set. The men were all cooking up something for dinner. He went to his jet to find Eric cooking out of a large pot. Yelsen looked at the pot in curiosity.

"Eric! What is this?"

"Yelsen, I bought this pot out of a nice little general store. You're just in time for my Aunt Maurry's famous vegetable stew."

"What? I- wha- I'm at a loss for words."

Eric laughed at Yelsen's bafflement "Don't be, I bought this pot and the ingredients and now I'm making some stew. Just wait awhile. It's fantastic, the only good recipe my Aunt ever had"

"Alright, you have fun."

"I will. Hey what's with the dog?"

"Oh, this is Kobel"

"Aw he's adorable, what breed is he?"

"Uh," Yelsen looked down at Kobel. "Equestrain."

Kobel looked up at Yelsen sarcastically. "I'm sorry for not being interested in your breed Kobel, it's not like it makes a difference, right?"

Kobel rolled his eyes, causing Eric to laugh.

"Did Kobel just roll his eyes at you?"

"Yes... the dog here are ve-" Yelsen was cut off by Eric's uncontrollable laughter.

"A dog just rolled it's eyes at you, man I'm really starting to love this place." Eric said, wiping a tear from his eye.

"The dog's here are smart."

"Yeah, well that doesn't take a rocket scientist." Eric said sarcastically.

"You go back to your cooking, I'm going to check up on the men."

Yelsen walked from jet to jet, checking to see not only how the men were doing, but also to see how they would react to Kobel. Most of them loved Kobel and found him the most hilarious thing ever. Kobel was the most clever dog Yelsen had ever seen and at every jet Kobel found a new and creative way to embarrass Yelsen. Yelsen was surprised to see that most of the men had taken up permanent jobs around town and now had bags of the local currency. Yelsen returned to his jet to see Eric eating a bowl of his soup with two english muffins. Yelsen got himself a bowl of soup and sat down in his makeshift tent.

"Eric."

"Yelsen."

"Where the hell did you get English muffins?"

"They sell them at the bakeries."

"What?"

"Yeah, they taste just like the ones back home, better actually."

"I'm amazed, Equestria is almost exactly like Earth."

"I know, this is the best flight mission I've ever had go wrong."

The two laughed and continued to enjoy their soup as they told eachother of their day. After Yelsen finished his bowl he looked over Kobel, who was starting to look a little hungry. Yelsen filled up another bowl and set it down in front of Kobel. "Sorry that I don't have any dog food, hopefully this will suit you." Yelsen was relieved to see Kobel happily chow down on the soup. Yelsen looked up at the moon. The Earth was behind it, a blue marble in the sky. He laid down on his bed of pine needles and could feel a small warm body cuddle up next to him, Yelsen grinned to himself.

"Goodnight Kobel."

Michael sat on his bed as his laptop played another episode of My Little Pony. His friends had told him to watch more episodes, and that was what he was doing. Pinkie Pie popped out of a sponge bucket yelling, "foreveerrrrr" as Ralph and Rivers walked into the barracks. They suddenly stopped their conversation as they realized just what Michael was doing. Ralph stood next to Michael, a wide grin on his face.

"So do ya like it?"

"It's pretty cool, I can see why you like it, I guess."

"you brony?"

"What? Oh, I don't know."

"Who's your favorite pony?"

"Uh, Applejack I guess."

"Why?"

"Because she's strong and reliable just like me."

"you're a brony."

"I guess I am." Michael was surprised that he liked the show as much as he did. He never could have imagined that he would ever like My Little Pony. As a little kid he always play with G.I Joes and green army men, but not once did he even pay attention to anything pony. And now here he was, a real life G.I Joe, enjoying My Little Pony. Ralph and Rivers sat in their bunks, looking across the aisle to watch the show with Michael. Michael pulled up another episode as he breathed a sigh of relief that the Seal and the medic got a separate barracks tonight. Michael fell asleep to the faint sound of Winter Wrap up playing through Rivers' headphones.

Author's notes

Ah, another sweet, sweet chapter finished and uploaded. This chapter is disappointing for me because it just barely missed the 4,000 word mark. The chapters for this story are getting shorter, but I'm also putting less ideas into each chapter. This is probably both good and bad but regardless I'm happy with this chapter. I like writing from multiple perspectives though the characters I've added are really piling up. Lastly, I'm hard at work trying to find a good ending for this story. As of now I haven't so much as an estimate of how long this story will be but rest assured it will be longer than 10 chapters. Unless of course I write a 100,000 word chapter but I digress. I should really end this Author's notes before I start to ramble... wait...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Yelsen woke up to something licking his face. He looked up to find Kobel staring him down. He laughed as he reached up and scratched Kobel behind the ear. "Heh, good morning Kobel." Kobel sat down and wagged his tail. "I agree, it is time to get up and have breakfast." Eric sat up when he heard Yelsen talking to his dog.

Eric rubbed his eyes and looked at the two, "My god Yelsen, how do you understand Kobel so fuckin' well?"

"I don't know, it just comes naturally." Yelsen replied, petting Kobel.

"You're a natural dog whisperer, you should host a TV show."

Yelsen smiled back at Eric, "Dog whisperer? Heh, maybe you should host a cooking show."

Eric chuckled, "All I learned from Aunt Maurry other than that vegetable soup is how to overcook a can of soda."

"You're being pessimistic."

"You're being optimistic"

"Rabbit season!"

Eric broke out laughing.  
>"What's so funny?" Yelsen asked.<p>

"I grew up on looney tunes."

"Alright duck dodgers, time to get going. We've both got things to do."

"Talk to you later, Marvin."

Yelsen got up out of his shelter, The Earth could be seen just barely peeking above the treeline. Yelsen started to fry up some eggs as he watched the tiny blue marble sit in the sky. He wondered when the rescue plane would come. they had told him that it was a modified AC-130, but nothing of when to expect it. He shoved those thoughts out of his mind as he began his hike to town.

Michael fired off a few more rounds into the target. He put the safety on and disengaged the bolt as he walked to the tree he was practicing on. Another five bulls-eyes out of eight rounds, perfect. He began to walk back into the Air base feeling satisfied with his accuracy. He walked back into his bunk to find Ralph and Rivers sitting around a laptop. Ralph looked up from the screen and beckoned for Michael to come look.

Ralph pointed to the screen, "Dude, Michael, fucking look."

Michael looked to see a news article headlined "Science community baffled as new tests show the possibility of a geocentric solar system." Michael looked closer and read the rest of the article.

_New studies around the world have led to one theory, the geocentric theory that the solar system revolves around Equestria. Scientist Jeremy Rickers had this to say, "We are not fully sure what is causing a white dwarf to revolve around this planet no bigger than our own. We suspect that it may have something to do with a new type of radiation we have recently discovered. We do not know exactly what causes it or what it does, but it surrounds the sun, the moon, and our planet. We have detected the largest concentration of this new radiation on Equestria, we hope to ask Princess Celestia for any possible knowledge of this radiation and hope to find a solution soon." Jeremy says that this new radiation has no obvious harmful effects and that people should not be concerned._

Ralph pointed at the screen, "look, they even have a picture of our orbit." Michael looked at the picture. It showed four orbs representing the Earth, the sun, the moon, and Equestria. Equestria sat in the center of the drawing and the moon sat in between Equestria and the Earth. Ralph read aloud from the article, "Due to the new orbit Earth is in, night and day are both an hour shorter. We are looking into possible eclipses but have not found any that are likely to happen within the next year."

"So it's true!" Ralph said excitedly, "Celestia really does raise the sun everyday."

"Yeah but it says that she does in the show." Rivers said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's true, but the show never has Earth in it's orbit so."

Ralph began to argue but quickly quieted down and continued reading the article. Michael had just finished reading the article when Ralph brought up another point.

"So if that radiation is magic, then wouldn't that mean that one of the Princesses is raising the Earth."

"Oh yeah, that does make sense. Which one would it be though?" Rivers replied

"I think it would probably be Celestia."

"Nah, Luna for sure."

"But wouldn't it make more sense if," Ralph was about respond but Michael cut him off.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to ask them when we land there?"

Ralph opened his mouth to protest but simply settled back down. The three rangers continued to read articles as the AC-130 warmed up it's engines for it's first test flight.

Yelsen walked happily down the road to Ponyville, Kobel following close behind. He had just gotten past the apple orchard when Rainbow Dash landed in front of him. It took a second for him to remember her, they had not met since their first encounter. He quickly realized who it was and raised his hand in a wave.

"Good morning Rainbow Dash." He said with a smile.

"Hi. I wanted to ask you if maybe we could try flying sometime."

"I suppose, why do want to?"

"I've only ever seen you flying when you first passed our town and I wanted to see just how well you can fly."

Yelsen scratched the back of his head "Alright, sounds good. I'll see what I can do, I might not be able to though."

"Why not?"

"The jets, they aren't meant to take off from grassy areas. I would only be able to if I could find a runway."

"Oh," She sounded disappointed, "what would you need for a runway?"

"just a long flat stretch of road or pavement."

"I could find one of those for you."

"I'm sure you could, but how would I get the jet over there."

"Twilight could probably lift it with her magic."

"Okay, I'll tell you what. Get my jet onto a runway and I'll go flying with you whenever I can."

"Sweet."

She flew off in search of a runway. Yelsen watched as the cyan pony flew off into the distance, turning into a little blue dot before disappearing from sight. He continued walking into town, heading for Rarity's house.

Michael, Rivers, and Ralph were all sitting at the side of the runway as the AC-130 began to gain speed. The wind kicked up around them as the beast glided past them and clumb into the sky. They could hear the scientists inside through the headsets they had been issued.

The pilot began to go through the neccesary announcements, "Wing stability achieved, all systems are go. Wind speed is 2 knots, weather is sunny, awaiting confirmation to begin test route."

"Roger that, you are clear for the test route." The flight controller responded.

The radio chatter continued on for several minutes as the shuttle clumb higher into the atmosphere. Everything was going surprisingly well, there weren't any flight issues and the radio chatter continued at a calm pace.

"We have reached 30,000 feet, engaging rockets."

There was a small line of smoke suddenly visible in the sky. It streaked through the sky leaving a massive trail of smoke and steam. After half an hour the smoke stopped and the radio chatter continued at a casual pace.

"First set of thrusters have burnt out, beginning orbit around the earth."

"Copy that, we will continue to track you on the radar."

Ralph stood up, "Come on guys," he said stretching his arms, "this stage of the test lasts for about 38 hours, lets go find something to do while the scientists do their stuff."

They all got up and returned to their bunks. Rivers and Ralph wandered off to do something but Michael sat and watched the season premiere of season 3. He smiled at the irony of him watching another episode only days before going to Equestria.

Yelsen knocked on Rarity's door, after only a couple of seconds the white unicorn opened the door. Yelsen took a step back, "That was fast."

Rarity raised an eyebrow for a second, "What? Oh, yes, I was just on my way out."

"Oh, I came here to see how the hat was doing."

"Almost done darling, I was actually just getting the last thing for it."

"What is it?"

"Well let's just say I did a bit of research into your hat before I started making."

"Research? How could you ponies possibly know anything about Russia?"

"Now I never said Russia now did I?"

Yelsen sighed as Rarity walked past him. He looked at Kobel, who was staring back up at him.

"I don't suppose you would know what she's getting." Yelsen said rhetorically

Kobel shook his head.

"I suppose that I should find something else to do now." Yelsen sat down on the curb and scratched his chin. Kobel looked at Yelsen for a second before running off around a corner. Yelsen started to get up to go after him, but he sat back down after realizing that Kobel wasn't running away. He wondered were Kobel went and after a few minutes he returned with a stick. He dropped the stick in front of Yelsen and wagged his tail. "Kobel, the only dog I've ever seen that's clever, sarcastic, and likes to play fetch the stick." Yelsen said as he stood up. He picked up the stick and walked out to the nearest field. He tossed it out a few times before Rainbow Dash landed next to him.

"What's new?" Yelsen asked.

"I found a runway and Twilight agreed to move your jet over there."

"Fantastic, where is it?"

"It's right this way c'mon."

Rainbow Dash began to fly off, calling for Yelsen to hurry up. Kobel dropped the stick and looked up at Yelsen.

"I'm sorry Kobel, we'll finish up later."

Kobel, satisfied with this, hurried after Yelsen and Rainbow Dash.

Ron stared at the TV screen placed in front of him. The screen was divided into four sections showing different camera views aboard the shuttle. It continued to fly through space in orbit of the Earth. Equestria could be seen out of one camera and California could be seen through another. His phone began to ring.

"The president's office." He answered

"Hello, Good evening. We have found some groundbreaking new statistics."

"What's so important?"

"We found that the Earth is rotating at the same exact rate it did normally. what's more is that our position relative to the sun never changes."

"In English."

"With the way we are orbiting, we will never eclipse with the new planet and our days are only marginally shortened. This is an amazing coincidence."

"Coincidences this big don't happen. What else do you have?"

"Also due to the way we are orbiting, we won't have anymore seasons."

"What?"

"We may rotate at the same rate but our tilt has changed. With the current tilt that the Earth is at, we will be stuck in a perpetual summer. What's more is that even if our tilt was the same, the sun makes one full revolution around Equestria every 24 hours."

"What are the expected damages?"

"Many parts of the southwest U.S could start experiencing a permanent drought, the Sahara could turn into an oven, and Death Valley would bake people out of their cars."

"Is there any chance to fix this?"

"Nothing that isn't science fiction."

Ron sighed, "Damnit, how long do we have until these effects start to kick in."

"All of these will only begin to show next year, as of right now summer is still perfectly on time. These are all long term effects that could potentially be devastating."

"All right, thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"Good night sir."

Ron hung up the phone. He took out a piece of scratch paper and wrote all of this down. He posted it up on his problem board. Among the war in the middle east and several national security issues sat problems involving Equestria. A small little corner dealing with diplomacy, space travel and the seasons. He stared at his board rubbing his chin, unlike all of the other problems, that little corner could almost completely be solved by one Princess, if only he had a way to contact her.

Yelsen finally arrived at the runway, it was sitting in the middle of what looked like an abandoned town. He leaned down and ran his hand over the pavement, it seemed smooth enough to take off from. Rainbow Dash sat at the side of the runway with Kobel as Yelsen walked up and down the runway looking for debris. Yelsen was surprised at how perfect of a runway that this was. It was long, straight, and wide. He walked back to Rainbow Dash and sat down next to her.

"Wow," he said, "this is perfect, how did you find this."

"A couple years ago some ponies tried to make planes so that earth ponies could fly. They never got very far and I guess they just ran out of money. All of the ponies that worked here just started leaving and now this is all that they left behind."

"Well it's absolutely perfect either way."

"So... it's a deal then?"

"Absolutely! Now that I think of it." Yelsen looked back at all the buildings. "If those buildings are all abandoned then we could probably move everybody else and their jets over here too. We could start up the first human town on Equestria."

"That would be a good idea but,"

"But what?"

"Twilight only agreed to bring one of your jets, it would take a lot to convince her to take all of them."

"She could do it, couldn't she?"

"She absolutely could, she just might not want to."

"I'll take it up with her, if she says no then that's too bad."

"Okay."

Yelsen stood up and began to walk back to town. Kobel looked up at Rainbow Dash for a second before running after him. Rainbow Dash soared past them on her way to Twilight's house causing Kobel to run off barking after her. Yelsen smiled as he saw Kobel jump and disappear into a bush. Kobel seemed to like her, he wondered why Kobel never became her pet as he started to run after the two. After only a few minutes, he had caught up with Rainbow Dash back at Twilight's house. Kobel sat attentively as the two talked to eachother.

"Just wait a second, I'll help you but I have to finish some things before I do." Twilight said.

"Okay, I'll wait out here." Rainbow Dash turned around and saw Yelsen. Yelsen sat down on a rock as she walked up to him.

"So what's the verdict?" Yelsen asked.

"She agreed to help, but in a little bit."  
>"That's quite alright, I have some things to do as well."<p>

"I'll see you in a little bit then."

"Yes, I will come back in about ten or fifteen minutes."

Yelsen got up and headed back to Rarity's house. He felt like he forgot something before realizing that Kobel had stayed behind with Rainbow Dash. He made it to Rarity's house and knocked on her door. After a couple of minutes it opened.

"Ah, I was wondering when you would show up." Rarity said, turning back into her house. "I just finished the hat and I think that you will just adore it."

Yelsen followed her into her boutique. He looked around at all the mannequins holding all sorts of dresses and gowns. There was cloth and sewing tools strewn about and the walls were covered with drawings of clothes. Rarity pulled a hat off the wall and handed it to him. It was, by all means, the usual russian hat. It was dyed brown, it had ear flaps, and the fur parts were substituted with very soft tufts of wool. On the front was a small badge. The badge was a red soviet star inside of a gold circle. There was an inscription along the bottom edge of the badge that said "Stalliongrad" Yelsen laughed for a second as he began to realize just how unlikely this was.

"You're serious?" he asked.

"Yes. Why? Is something wrong with it."

"No, it's just that this is a soviet star, and on Earth there is a city named Stalingrad."

"Oh." Now Rarity was confused, "I just assumed that you had heard of Stalliongrad somewhere and put the badge on there."

"I like it, I just find it to be... odd."

"Yes very odd."

"Heh, it's like this was destined to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"We speak different languages that sound the same, we have many of the same technology and architecture, and we have almost exactly the same plants and animals. I could go on and on. Either way, our worlds are almost exactly the same and yet completely different. It's fascinating."

"Now that you mention it, it does seem rather strange."

"It does, I will talk to you later, have a good day Rarity."

"Goodbye."

Yelsen walked out of the store wearing his new hat. His hat felt ridiculous to wear in combination of his dirty flight suit. He folded it under his arm as he walked to Rainbow Dash, who was still waiting for Twilight to be finished. He reached down to pet Kobel and sat down once more on his rock.

"What'd you do?" She asked.

"I got a hat from Rarity." He replied, showing her his new hat.

"Stalliongrad? Have you even heard of that city."

"Have you ever heard of Stalingrad?"

"No, but."

"Well, lets just say that it's ironic that we both have two versions of the same city."

"Oh, what other cities are there on Earth?"

"There's many of them."

"What are the biggest."

"Biggest? New York is the biggest one I know of."

"Ever been there?"

"Yes, went there one time. Got a Manhattan T-shirt."

"There's a Manehattan on Earth?"

Yelsen almost broke out laughing, "Manehattan? Two planets that are almost exactly the same coming together, what are the odds."

"Pretty high, apparently."

Twilight opened up her door finally. She looked up at Yelsen then to Rainbow Dash.

"I'm ready, let's get this over with."

Twilight Sparkle had little problems with the jet. Although it weighed thousands of pounds, she had faced worse with the Ursa Minor. She placed the jet snugly down onto the ran his hand along the sleek exterior and smiled at the old bird. It hadn't been flown in well over a month and he could only hope that some mechanical problem hadn't sprung up. He looked at the long runway ahead of the jet in attempt to evaluate if it will really be long enough.

"This is good," he said, "I should be able to work with this."

"How long will it take?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"give me half an hour."

"Okay."

Rainbow Dash sat at the side as Yelsen began to examine his plane. He looked at the engines, they appeared to be rust free and only had a little bit of dirt. Fortunately, it had not rained since they had arrived so there wasn't any rust. Even the landing gears hadn't built up any mud that might cause problems . Yelsen flipped on the engines and electronics. The turbines roared to life and several display panels lit up around his cockpit. He did the usual pre flight check list ten times before finally feeling confident that everything was fine. He had enough fuel to fly for ten hours and leave an hour for landing. He leaned out of the cockpit and yelled across at Rainbow Dash, "Eveything is good, I'm good to fly." He sat back into the cockpit and put on his flight helmet. Rainbow Dash flew into the air, anticipating Yelsen's flight. Yelsen took one last look at every panel before increasing the throttle to take off. He got halfway across the runway before lifting up and taking off. He could see the excited blue pegasus flying just to the right of him. He looked up and out at her, even though he was going hundreds of kilometers an hour, she didn't even look strained. He wished he could say something to her. He would have to land and get a radio just for her, and that might cost him today's flight time. Yelsen thought about what he could do without having contact with her. He decided to run through some stunts to make sure all systems were running at full and pulled up sharply. Rainbow Dash blinked out of his sight for a few seconds before catching back up with him. Yelsen smiled underneath his helmet, today's flight check was going to be a whole lot more fun.

Ron smiled at the massive rocket ship in front of him. He was surprised that NASA had put together a satellite launch in just one month, but he was also relieved that every system dependent on the satellite network would start to work. It certainly wouldn't be as effective as the network once was, but it was a start. Yet another man with a clipboard greeted him.

"Good evening ." He said, extending a hand.

"Good evening. This missile launch of yours, how are you sure it wont just crash into Equestria?"

"We did the math, and the satellite will orbit close enough to earth so that the Equestrian gravity doesn't affect it. We are in a very strange spot in our orbit of the planet, we should be crashing into it right now, but we seem to be staying exactly the same distance from it. All we need to do for our satellites is to keep the orbit close enough to earth so that their gravity doesn't affect them."

"Very well, carry on."

The man nodded and walked away. Ron felt like he was missing something, something important. He shrugged it off as he sat in his limo and drove off.

Yelsen began the descent to land on the runway. As he approached the runway he noticed several pegasi flying towards his jet. It wasnt entirely unexpected, his jet was probably the loudest damn thing for miles. Yelsen finally made touchdown and turned off the engines, he rolled to a halt and opened up his cockpit. A small group of ponies, presumably from Ponyville, had gathered around the jet. They all looked at him with the same expression of curiosity and amazement as he took off his flight helmet. Yelsen raised a hand in greeting. Rainbow Dash flew in and landed next to him.

"Didn't even break a sweat." She boasted.

"I see. I need to get you a radio so that we can actually talk to eachother." Yelsen responded.

"I could barely hear myself over that thing's noise."

Yelsen turned to the group of ponies, "Hello, just test flying the jet with Rainbow Dash over here. Nothing all that interesting going on."

One of the ponies chimed in, "Could we test fly?"

"Wha- I- I guess, Not right now but... why would you want to? Its just a jet."

"Okay." The pony that had asked started to leave. Yelsen realized that the pony asking didn't have any wings.

"Alright," Yelsen continued, "I can't have any of you fly the jet, but any pegasi could fly _with_ my jet."

Yelsen began to walk back to camp. Most of the ponies followed him all the way back to his camp after realizing that he wasn't headed to town. He walked down into the camp and was greeted by some of the men. He suddenly found himself surrounded by two crowds. His fellow pilots were bombarding him with questions about his flight and the ponies were bombarding him with questions about the pilots. Everybody blended into one noise shouting questions at him.

Yelsen shouted out at the crowd, "SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND!"

everybody fell silent. "sorry commander." one of the pilots said.

"okay," Yelsen began, "One question at a time."

One of the pilots called out quickly, "Where did you take off?"

"There's an abandoned airfield nearby." Yelsen replied calmly

"An airfield?"

"Yes, the ponies here tried to make planes of their own a while back."

"how big is it? Could we move the rest of our planes there?"

"probably, but that would take time. Anyone else?"

A pony shouted out, "Why don't you try moving into town?"

"Do you have a hangar to hold all these planes?"

"No..."

"Alright. Any other burning questions?"

The men shook their heads and the ponies stayed quiet.

"Okay. Ponies, go back to town, there isn't much to see here. Men, we will discuss this tonight. Am I clear?"

The ponies nodded then began to leave. The men gave a collective "yes sir" before carrying on with their days. Kobel joined Yelsen as he walked back to town for lunch. He went to the usual restaurant was prepared to have the rest of the day go normally. Right before taking a bite he noticed a man walking down the street in a uniform he didn't recognize. The man appeared to be talking to ponies and handing out fliers. One of the pilots walked up to him and spoke to him briefly. The man did not give him a flier. Yelsen beckoned the pilot to come over to him. He took a seat across from Yelsen.

"Who is that man?" Yelsen asked

"He says he's an ambassador."

"An ambassador for who?"

"The Equestrian freedom society."

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't know."

"Who's even in that society?"

"He wouldn't say, must be a world power to have landed someone here."

"Doesn't Celestia have a seat at the UN? Why would there be a need for a peace society?"

"I don't know, I don't like it."

"I agree, somethings up. Keep an eye out and pass the word onto the rest of the pilots. I want everyone to keep an eye on this."

"Got it, I'll try to find out what this is all about."

The pilot got up and left. Yelsen didn't like the sound of this society. Something was up and he needed to find out what it was quickly. He leaned down to Kobel. Kobel lifted up an ear as Yelsen whispered in his ear.

"Kobel, I want you to get one of those fliers and bring it to me."

Kobel nodded and ran to the man handing out fliers. He tugged on the man's pant leg. The man looked down at him in confusion. Kobel pointed at the flier he was carrying. The man handed him one and Kobel ran back to Yelsen. Yelsen grabbed the flier and began to read it. It was written in Equestrian and had a picture of a globe. There was a man on one side of the globe and a pony stood at the other.

_Attention citizens of Equestria! The so called pilots that have arrived are here to enslave you and destroy your town. They are not to be trusted. We here at the Equestrian Peace Society are trying to drive them from our town and liberate you from the vile men who threaten you. Stay calm, stay alert, we will save you from disaster._

Yelsen was surprised and frightened to see this. He got up and walked up to a pony that was reading one of the fliers. The pony looked up from it at him.

"Hello there... pilot." The pony said

"Hello," Yelsen held up the flier, "do you actually believe any of this?"

The pony's eyes widened, "Oh no... of course not... I should be on my way."

The pony started to walk away at a worried pace. Yelsen was starting to get concerned by these posters. He walked to the man who was stopped handing out fliers upon seeing Yelsen. He turned away from the group of ponies he was talking to and stared intently at Yelsen. Yelsen held up the flier in his hand and shouted out at the man.

"What the hell is this so called peace society? Celestia has a seat at the UN, any operations involving Equestria have to be approved by her. Why are you coming in here and spreading fear?"

The man's eyes widened, he reached for his hip. Yelsen saw a small pistol on his hip and began to reach for his own pistol. Yelsen drew first and aimed at the man.

"Drop it!" He shouted, the man started to raise his pistol at Yelsen. Yelsen aimed up a shot and fired. He managed to land his shot perfectly on the man's arm, causing him to drop his pistol. Everypony in the street stopped at the sound of the gunshot. A few nearby pilots drew their weapons and started to run to Yelsen. Yelsen ran at the man and tackled him to the ground. He pinned him down and aimed his gun directly at him.

"Alright," Yelsen said angrily, "What the hell is this Equestrian Peace Society?"

"It's an organization to save Equestria from tyranny." He replied calmly

"Do you see tyranny in Equestria? Who's funding this?"

"This operation is being launched and coordinated by the true friends of Equestria."

"Who are they?"

"It is an alliance to save Eque-"

Yelsen punched him, "What countries are in it?"

"China, India, and many other countries."

Yelsen realized what this meant, "China?"

"Yes."

Yelsen looked up at one of the pilots that had ran over to him.

"Take this man back to base, I need to ask him a few more questions." Yelsen commanded. He stood up and two of the pilots took the man out of town. Three more pilots approached Yelsen. He had six men with him. Every single pony was now staring at Yelsen in complete silence.

"What the fuck happened?" one of them asked.

Yelsen replied, "It seems that some very powerful countries are trying to get control of Equestria. I want all of you to stay on high alert, don't go anywhere without your weapons. We need to form squads, things are getting dangerous. I want all of you to come with me, we must alert the rest of the men."

They began to march around town. By the time they got halfway through the town they had a group of twelve pilots. They reached the town hall and saw five men wearing military uniforms standing over eleven of the pilots. The pilots had their hands over their heads and were standing on their knees. A huge crowd of ponies were watching in horror at the scene. One of the military men was carrying a mega phone.

"Citizens of Equestria!" he yelled, "these men are here to destroy you all. We come from the Equestrian Peace Society and are here to liberate you of these hidden enemies."

Yelsen turned to his men and began to think of a plan, "Okay, the town hall is round, you, you, you, and you go around the right side and flank behind them. The rest of you, flank around the left side. I will signal for both of you to attack when you are both ready. Turn your radios on."

The men reached onto their flight suits and turned on their built in radios. The two groups ran off and out of sight. Yelsen watched nervously as the man ranted on about how they were freeing Equestria. He saw Rainbow Dash fly up from nowhere and shout at the men. "They aren't our enemies." She defended

"And why are you so sure of this?"

"I went flying with one of them today. Besides, they've been around here for awhile."

"All the better to trick you into thinking they are friendly. The peace society is the only true friends to Equestria. You must open your eyes to the dangers that surround you."

"My eyes are already wide open. I'm friends with one of the pilots, they aren't doing anything bad here, they're actually really cool."

One of the military men started to aim his rifle at her.

"This pegasus is obviously working in conjunction with the pilots to bring doom to this town. She is a traitor to all of you."

Yelsen's heart sank as he realized that Rainbow Dash didn't know what a gun was. Yelsen aimed his pistol and fired at the man aiming at Rainbow Dash. The man was hit in the chest and fell to the ground instantly. Four of the pilots charged from around the corner, shooting the rest of the military men before they could shoot at Yelsen. The crowd was completely silent. Rainbow Dash looked at Yelsen in horror. He felt bad for having this scene unfold in front of half the town. He walked onto the stage and looked out to the crowd.

He began to address them, "I am terribly sorry that all of you had to see this. I do not know much of Equestria, but I do know that it is far more peaceful then on Earth. These men are trying to kill us. I do not know why, but I will try to find out. In the meantime, do not trust these men. We will try to defend you, but I have no idea how many more there are."

One of the ponies yelled at Yelsen, "How can we trust you? They were telling you're the enemy and now you're telling us that they are the enemy."

"I understand it may be hard to trust us right now. But try to remember that we aren't the ones hosting public executions. We aren't the ones who just tried to shoot Rainbow Dash. We didn't shoot first, nor did we ever want to shoot in the first place. We are simply trying to defend what we have."

"And just what _do_ you have? You pilots are killing eachother."

"These aren't pilots, I have no idea who they are. But as far as what we have, we have a mostly peaceful life. Many of the pilots have jobs, and I have recently seen a few that have made friends with the ponies here. This town is a haven, and we will fight to keep it that way. I do not ask that you trust us, just as long as you don't trust them."

"how can we tell the difference?"

"Like I said, we aren't the ones hosting public executions."

Yelsen turned around to debrief the men. "clean this up, return to base."

"What about the bodies?" one of the pilots asked

"bury them somewhere, somewhere far away from any ponies."

The men began to do as Yelsen said. When they all returned to base, not a single man laughed or joked. The men were assigned into four six man squads. The camp was quiet as Yelsen began to wait for the Earth to come within range of the radio.

Michael sat at the side of the runway. He had gone through his daily training and it was only ten minutes away from the shuttle landing back at the base. He listened to the radio chatter as the AC-130 slowly came into view. It roared in, tearing across the runway before finally grinding to a halt. Michael picked himself up and began to walk to the massive plane. It turned into the hangar and disappeared behind its doors. Michael walked into the hangar. The pilots were getting out and the crews had begun to refuel the plane. The operations director walked up to Michael.

"Ah, good to see you." He said, "We're going to be having an official launch in two days. Tell the rest of the rangers, and please do get some extra rest tomorrow."

Michael walked into the barracks and saw Ralph and Rivers sitting around in their bunks. Michael laid down in his bunk.

"So how was the landing?" Ralph asked

"It went well. We're shipping out in two days."

"We are?"

"yeah, check your gear tomorrow. Clean everything out twice. Once we land, it'll be awhile before we receive any supplies."

Rivers piped in, "Why would we need supplies? Its Equestria after all. I doubt we even need our guns."

"I don't know. Just make sure everything is running at full in case something goes wrong."

"Alright." Rivers laid down.

Ron waited for the phone call. The pilots had some very important news and he needed to know what it was. He picked the phone up the second it rang.

"The president, whats wrong up there?" Ron asked

"It's the Chinese, they've gathered some allies and have started something called the Equestrian Peace Society." Yelsen's voice had a faint static.

"The Chinese? Your sure?"

"No doubt about it."

"Whats the catch? You called me up for a reason."

"Yes, they attempted to kill us and cause the ponies to distrust us."

"What did they exactly?"

"They passed out fliers saying that we were here to enslave them and they held a public execution of about half of our pilots."

"Jesus, how many men do you have left."

"We managed to rescue them, we're still at full strength."

"You saved them? Don't tell me there was a shootout"

"I'm afraid so. I've organized the men into squads in case more show up."

"Thank you for telling me this."

"There's one more thing. We found an abandoned airfield. You could probably land the shuttle on it."

"An airfield?"

"Yes, the ponies attempted to develop planes. They failed but the airfield remains. I was able to take off and land on it with my Phantom." Yelsen's voice was becoming less clear.

"good, that means that we can put something other than construction materials on the shuttle. What do you need?"

"We need some heavy defense. I don't know how long we can hold out if too many of that society's troops show up."

"I'll see what I can do. Just hold tight out there."

"Alright, when can I expect the shuttle?"

"In two or three days."

"Good." The signal faded out. Ron hung up the phone and popped a CD out of the machine. He had recorded the entire conversation, and the next UN conference would be a difficult one. He took out a paper and drafted a request to send an APC to Equestria. It would have to be approved by Celestia, but he had a feeling that they would see eye to eye.

Yelsen turned off the radio. He looked up into the sky and saw the Earth, a small blue marble in the sky. A few bright streaks were stretching across the sky. He climbed out his jet and started to walk to his shelter. He noticed something blue in the corner of his eye. He turned to see Rainbow Dash, standing a few feet away from him.

"What are you doing up so late?" He asked

"I can't sleep."

"And why not?"

"I- I could have died right there. I didn't even realize what they were pointing at me."

"I see..." Yelsen could understand what she was feeling. After having shot two people today, Yelsen was feeling like shit himself. He could only imagine what it would be like for something that had never seen any sort of war.

"Who were those people? Why did they try to kill me?"

"They tried to kill you because you were questioning them. I myself am not entirely sure who they are, but I am sure that they aren't here to help."

Rainbow Dash was quiet.

"Listen, it's late, We're tired, why don't you go home and try to get some sleep."

She didn't budge.

"Okay, if it makes you feel better, you can hang around the camp."

"Thank you."  
>Yelsen went to his shelter and hunkered down for the night. Kobel found his way in shortly after. Yelsen thought back on the day. He flew with Rainbow Dash and saved her life in the same day. He wasn't sure what the purpose of the peace society was, but he had a bad feeling about it. He prayed that it would be figured out diplomatically, and feared what might happen if it wasn't. And all across Equestria, the peace society was brushing off a hard landing, and beginning Operation Exodus.<p>

Author's notes

I'M BACK! Yup, I haven't died and neither has this story. I just went into a bit of a coma as far as ideas and motivation for my stories goes. But, I've gotten past it and now I should be updating atleast a little bit more often. This goes for my other story, which I had temporarily run completely out of ideas for. Sorry to keep you all waiting, thanks for reading.


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